tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18644199526953818802019-09-13T06:14:55.638-04:00 Daughters of St. Philip NeriFr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.comBlogger606125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-82434382451462773332019-07-17T09:36:00.002-04:002019-07-17T09:36:58.092-04:00Thy Whole Heart, Thy Whole Soul, Thy Whole Strength<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W44lrEN2d6M/XS8kD5SZ65I/AAAAAAADhwY/Jo9W-62VdewylYIrRyQc35vgVikFFEcNwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0959.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1187" data-original-width="897" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W44lrEN2d6M/XS8kD5SZ65I/AAAAAAADhwY/Jo9W-62VdewylYIrRyQc35vgVikFFEcNwCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_0959.JPG" width="481" /></a></div><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">For this command that I enjoin on you today is not too mysterious and remote for you. It is not up in the sky, that you should say, 'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' Nor is it across the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea to get it for us and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?' No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(Deut 30:14)</span><br /><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">The Carthusian tells us: “We have all we need to enter immediately upon a life of the greatest intimacy with God.” Do we believe this? What is more, do we have the will to act on it? Do we permit ourselves to imagine that the kingdom is without us and thus squander our time searching far and wide for what is all the while immediately at hand, thus putting off our promised conversion? Do we even realize the value of that which we profess to seek?</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Our Lord tell us that the kingdom of God is within us; and not only within us, but in the very depths of our being.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">If anyone love me,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">he says,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">he will keep my word, and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make our abode with him&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(John 14:23).</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Unfortunately, we are so apt to forget these truths. There are, of course, many faithful souls who endeavor to lead good lives, and strive to attain to a certain ideal of moral virtue. But how few know how to live a life of real faith, sustained by hope and aflame with the love of God, in order to participate fully in the life that Jesus longs to share with us. We are surrounded and enfolded with the loving care of divine Providence; we have all we need to enter immediately upon a life of the greatest intimacy with God, but we lack the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">will&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">to live the supernatural life. We know the principles: the way lies open before us. If anything prevents us from embarking upon it, then the fault lies in ourselves.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">We must admit that&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(Luke 16:8). We have, indeed, received an infinite treasure, but we do not realize its true worth. And the very fact of our ignorance of its value prevents us from making the good use of it that we should. Our Lord surely had our heedlessness in mind when he recounted the parable of the wasted talent, which the foolish servant hid, to no purpose, in the ground.</span><br /><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">What is outside of us is something other than ourselves, and thus it can only be entered into for a time and constitutes only a part of our lives. But the kingdom, God himself, is within us; His commandments, His kingdom, and His very self – they dwell in the very depths of our beings and thus are a part of our whole life. We either exist integrated within ourselves, and thus one with the God who is within us, or we exist disintegrated and thus alienated from our own selves and from God.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">We must not rest content with a few devotional exercises at the beginning and in the course of the day: that does not constitute a&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">life</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">. The word&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">life&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">denotes a constant, persevering activity: and Our Lord wants to be our life. He said:&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">I am the Life&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(John 11:25). And so we must not only follow in his steps but continue to do so. It is not just this or that particular devotion that he asks of us, but our whole life, our whole strength and our whole soul; so that we may with his help begin, even</span></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">now, our eternal life. In a word, we must respond to the call of Christ, if we would breathe the pure and radiant air of eternal truth and love.</span><br /><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Saint Charbel writes: “Do not weary yourself looking for other keys with which to open the gate of heaven, or fabricating others. Many are those who spend their life trying to design their own keys, believing that they would be capable of opening the gate for them; and many too are those who ridicule the cross of Christ. In front of the gate the truth shines forth, and they notice then that all their keys are in vain... There is only one true key: the cross of Christ..” Here the Carthusian tells: “There is only one door by which we can enter into our spiritual heritage . . . This one door is Christ.” All our actions, all our asceticism must be carried out for Christ and through Christ, and for and through Him alone.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Looking back in all sincerity over our spiritual life, we are surprised, if not disheartened, at our slowness, not to say complete lack of progress. How is it that there has been so much effort with so little to show for it? Why, after so many years, it may be, of a life of asceticism, must we own to the same weaknesses, admit the same faults? Is it not possible that from the very beginning we have missed the essential point of it all, and have been following the wrong road?</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">For there is only one door by which we can enter into our spiritual heritage. In our vain attempts to enter by some other way, it is obvious that we are bound to meet with insuperable difficulties. Have we not been rather like a foolish robber who seeks by some ruse to effect an entrance into a place only too well defended?&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">He that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up another way,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">says Our Lord,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">is a thief and a robber (John 10:1).&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">This one door is Christ: faith in Christ; a faith quickened by love, which by fortifying our heart makes us capable of loving in return with a love which burns more intensely and radiates more widely, thus resembling more and more the love of Jesus.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">But first of all we must make one thing perfectly clear. Any kind of asceticism which has for its sole object the perfecting of&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">self&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">––an asceticism which is egocentric–– is utterly worthless. Such a way of life pays very poor dividends, and the profits it yields are very disappointing. He who sows human seed can only expect to reap a human harvest.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Christian asceticism is based absolutely upon a divine principle, and this same principle inspires and animates it, and guides it to its end.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(Deut 6:5). Here we have the summing-up and essence of the Old Law: the New Law has done no more than repeat this first and greatest commandment, making it clearer for all to understand, and promulgating it universally in all its divine simplicity and force. From the very beginning of our spiritual life we must keep our soul set towards this plenitude of love, towards God alone. To act otherwise is to fail to recognize the profound purpose of Christianity; to return to the notion of a self-centered perfection, to that delusive egoism of certain pagan moralists––in a word, to Stoicism, ancient and new––which is so exacting a culture of so miserable a pride.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">If only we could convince ourselves once and for all of the truth of the words of our divine Master:</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Without me, you can do nothing&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(John 15:5), how changes our whole outlook would be. If only our minds were penetrated with the doctrine of life contained in those few words, we would&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">concentrate on practicing, not just one or two virtues, but all without exception, knowing so well that it is God himself who must be both the term and source of our actions.</span></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 3"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">Then, having done all we can (as though success depended solely upon our own efforts) we would remain humble in our progress and confident after our falls. Knowing that of ourselves we can do nothing but that in Christ we can do all things, we should no more be discouraged by our faults than proud of the virtuous acts his grace has made possible.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">And not only that. Once we are convinced that we are nothing and that God is all, our very weaknesses and failings need no longer be obstacles. Indeed, they are changed into means: they are an occasion for our faith to grow by the exercise of heroic acts, and for our trust to triumph before the manifest rout of all that draws us away from God.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Gladly will I glory in my infirmities,</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">says the Apostle,&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">that the power of Christ may dwell in me&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(2 Cor 12:9). Once, then, we have learned to trust in God and mistrust our own strength, we shall run like giants in the way of love. More and more will love motivate our actions and purify our intentions, until before long its influence will penetrate every corner of our lives.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">And so, if we would be faithful to the teaching of the Gospel, we must spare no effort until we have arrived at acting solely from motives of faith and love. And since a purely natural principle can never produce supernatural results, we shall never reach our goal unless from the outset we endeavor to act solely from specifically Christian motives. For if, as Saint Paul says, we cannot pronounce our Lord’s name save by his grace, how can we hope, by our own efforts, to arrive at our supernatural ends.</span><br /><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">The kingdom of Christ lies open before us. Not only so, but it is Our Lord’s express desire that we should make that kingdom ours.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Abide in me, and I in you&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">(John 15:4). Why not respond to his call, and begin to live by faith&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">now?</span><br /><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPS; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">The Prayer of Love and Silence</span><br /><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 12pt;">A Carthusian</span></div></div></div>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-75335238448815678492019-06-05T11:51:00.003-04:002019-06-05T11:51:48.903-04:00We Must Conquer Weakness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4qvgrOKdTtI/XPe0xjyrByI/AAAAAAADRU8/udFUMWLtcrkieZfkHd-kDQVAQ0N3rwbHgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_2948.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4qvgrOKdTtI/XPe0xjyrByI/AAAAAAADRU8/udFUMWLtcrkieZfkHd-kDQVAQ0N3rwbHgCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_2948.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>St. Charbel speaks with simplicity and guilelessness but also with the strength and vision of a prophet. &nbsp;He can see very clearly the source of the world's sorrow (our sin) and its healing (the Cross). &nbsp;The Cross alone is the key that opens the gate of heaven for us. &nbsp;Yet, so many think there is no lock or that they can fashion a key of their own making. Vanity and delusion blind us to reality and our efforts and energies mock the true Cross.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">Our path must be one of repentance. Such a path does not allow us to be immobilized by our poverty and failings. &nbsp;We must courageously move forward, trusting not in ourselves but in the mercy of God and the&nbsp;</i><i>intercession</i><i style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;and support of Our Lady. No amount of sorrow or trials can match the infinite joy of the Kingdom found at the end of the journey. &nbsp;So press on! &nbsp;Know that your enemies will be numerous and hostile, but in the midst of violence you must preserve the face of Christ. Do not treat enemies as such but rather speak to them with the language of the Cross.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every lock has its key. &nbsp;Every door has its lock that opens only with the key that belongs to it. &nbsp;Death shut the door and sin bolt it. &nbsp;The cross is the key that frees the lock from sin and the bolt from death; the cross opens the gate of heaven, and there is no other.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The gate of heaven&nbsp;</span>is found<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;where heaven and earth meet,&nbsp;</span>at the<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;summit of&nbsp;</span>Calvary<span style="font-family: inherit;">. &nbsp;The gate is well-known, tangible, and visible; everyone has eyes to see it. &nbsp;Some think that it has no lock and that it opens if you push it; but when you draw close to it you understand that it has a lock that opens&nbsp;</span>only<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;with its key. &nbsp;We can know the right key only if it is inserted&nbsp;</span>into<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;the lock. &nbsp;There is only one true key: the cross of Christ.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do not weary yourself looking for other keys with which to open the gate of&nbsp;</span>heaven, or fabricating others. &nbsp;Many are those who spend their life trying to design their own keys, believing that they would be capable of opening the gate for them; and many too are those who ridicule the cross of Christ. &nbsp;In front of the gate the truth shines forth, and they notice then that all their keys are in vain.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Our whole life is a journey toward this age, and you will arrive there at the end of your pilgrimage; if you are holy the key in your hand, you will open it and enter. &nbsp;If not, you will stop in front of the gate without being able to go in, because the keys that you have are nothing but your own handiwork. &nbsp;They will disappoint you.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Therefore, carry the cross of Christ, and you will have the key of heaven. &nbsp;Carry the cross with joy ardor, and courage. &nbsp;Do not weep, do not lament every time you fail. &nbsp;Salvation history is not made up of tears and lamentations, even though the gate of heaven opens only to those who strike their breast and utters cries of lamentation. &nbsp;Just one tear is enough to open the gate of heaven, the tear of repentance that bathes the cheek of the courageous believer.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Carry the cross of Christ and follow in his footsteps; you will find the Virgin at your side, as she was for Christ. &nbsp;Every time that you feel hurt, say: "By the wounds of Christ." &nbsp;When you suffer, say: "By the sufferings of Christ." &nbsp;When they persecute you, when they mistreat you or insult you, say: "For the glory of the Lord."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You must conquer your weakness and not make it an excuse to let yourself go. &nbsp;If you carry the cross of Christ, no suffering can bend you, no weariness can demoralize you; you will walk steadfastly, patiently, silently. &nbsp;Once you have arrived at the gate, you will feel that the joy of your passage far surpasses your suffering and fatigue during the walk. &nbsp;The happiness at your arrival at the destination will infinitely surpass the sorrow of your travels.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The road to Calvary in this corner of the world is long, and here you carry the cross of Christ on your shoulders. &nbsp;Your enemies are numerous because they are enemies of the cross; do not take them as enemies; always speak to them with the language of the cross, even if they are hostile toward you because of it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The months and years to come will be very difficult, bitter and as heavy as the cross. &nbsp;Endure them by praying. &nbsp;May your prayer proceed from your faith, may hope spring from your patience, and may the cross make your love grow.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Violence will reign over all the earth. &nbsp;The planet will be stabbed by the knives of ignorance and hatred. &nbsp;All the nations that surround you will totter user the weight of suffering; fear will beat down on the whole earth like a storm; sadness will overflow from the heart of everyone. &nbsp;Ignorant and hostile men will preside over the destiny of all their peoples, dragging them along the paths of mystery and death, because of the blind revenge that they will nickname "justice" and because of the lugubrious ignorance that they will call "faith."</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Rancor and ignorance will prevail in all four corners of the world. &nbsp;Resist and stand firm in faith and charity. &nbsp;The face of the earth will change, but you will preserve the face of Christ. &nbsp;Boundaries, communities and regimes will be erased and redrawn, nations will totter beneath the weight of fire and sword; but you will preserve your love without boundaries.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Safeguard your ecclesial community, and may your rule be the Gospel. &nbsp;Be the anchor that holds fast the boats that wander on the turbulent seas; may your hearts be the port of refuge for every human being who is lost, astray, and in need of protection. &nbsp;By your prayers you can bring down the rain of mercy and water the earth with your charity. &nbsp;Pray to soften hardened hearts, to open darkened minds, to comfort those who have experienced catastrophes and horrors.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Finally, have no fear, because the light of Christ will rise and shine, the cross and the Church will illumine each other. &nbsp;Stand fast in your faith in Christ, have no fear, have confidence in the God of the Resurrection and of Life. &nbsp;To him be glory eternally.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u>Love is a Radiant Light</u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;">Homilies of St. Charbel</span></div><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-41606130198206588232019-05-10T09:34:00.001-04:002019-05-10T09:34:18.643-04:00Travel the Path with the Joy of the Resurrection<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WNLQ2W-uMBE/XNVxvMd1vNI/AAAAAAADRSY/eYIl1tQYo4M2CAnvwOUIDFOC9D1tDRvhwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WNLQ2W-uMBE/XNVxvMd1vNI/AAAAAAADRSY/eYIl1tQYo4M2CAnvwOUIDFOC9D1tDRvhwCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_8308.JPG" width="456" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Rooted as he is in the scriptures, St. Charbel pulls us into the rich images used by Jesus and brings them to life for us. &nbsp;We find ourselves walking along the path to the well with the Samaritan woman, weighed down by the burdens of our life; carrying all the "treasures"&nbsp;</i><i>once</i><i style="caret-color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">&nbsp;held dear but now broken and shattered dreams. &nbsp;We carry the shards, still treasuring what is worthless or only a distraction. St. Charbel tells us to get rid of what the world would make us carry. Have only one jar, he teaches, the jar of Christ, which will enrich you with everlasting love and lift you up. &nbsp;Simplify your lives. &nbsp;To multiply jars is to multiply ones burdens and concerns. &nbsp;It will blind us to the world around us and we will lose sight of our neighbor.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(102, 0, 0);"><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">Likewise, he tells us to be full grains of wheat that can bear the winnowing to come. You must have the substance of the Kingdom so as not to be blown away with the chaff. &nbsp;You must become the wheat that can be ground into flour and baked with the fire of God's charity. &nbsp;Persevere, Charbel exhorts us, through this whole process and travel the path of sanctity that will bring you to the fullness of Life.&nbsp;</i></span><br /><br />You walk along the path of your life, carrying the weight of burdens and many cares, loaded with all sorts of jars; some of them useful, others useless, while scattering your treasures in them.<br /><br />You mix up your treasures with your junk, and you no longer know where, in what jar they are. &nbsp;The jars are so cumbersome that some of them fall and are broken, some treasures are lost. &nbsp;Some people fritter away their fortune along the path of their life and arrive loaded down only with clay.<br /><br />Every jar you carry that does not contain your treasure is a useless burden full of distractions, which slows your march and tires you.<br /><br />Get rid of the jars that the world obliges you to carry, even if you have carried them during a long, tiring journey and perhaps have become accustomed to them.<br /><br />Know where your treasure is and put your whole heart there; store it all in just one jar and carry it carefully. &nbsp;Thus you will preserve it, and you will arrive rich with this treasure.<br /><br />Carry just one jar, the jar of Christ, who enriches you with love and carries it with you. &nbsp;Even when it is full, it will always be able to hold more; although heavy, it will be easy to carry.<br /><br />The other jars are all made of clay; even when empty &nbsp;they will be difficult to carry and will bend your back. &nbsp;Choose for yourselves your paths in this world, and do not let the path choose you. &nbsp;Do not carry the jars that the world imposes on you to distract and exhaust you.<br /><br />The more your jars multiply, the more remote you will be from your neighbor. &nbsp;Each one of them demands a distance. &nbsp;The more numerous they become, the greater the distances around you, and you be obliged to distance yourselves from one another so that your jars do not collide and run the risk of breaking. &nbsp;Therefore the jar becomes more important that your brethren. &nbsp;In your anxiety to protect your jars, you will have lost your brethren and your neighbors.<br /><br />Know that your treasures are very precious, but that you carry them in an earthen treasure, and all your brethren own a precious treasure, and they too carry it in an earthen vessel.<br /><br />You make your jars with your own hands and shut yourselves up in them, telling yourselves: "The world is made of clay?" &nbsp;Someone who puts himself inside the jar sees all of life as though it were made of clay. &nbsp;Come out of it and see the world as it is, and not as you have imagined it from inside. &nbsp;Let everyone fill his jar with the treasure of Christ, who is the only true treasure.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nraFIcrqdzo/XNV3Dx3nYaI/AAAAAAADRSo/9e2u3Mzpd5UIJVRo3JcNllfyRLapTxJSACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8347.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1201" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nraFIcrqdzo/XNV3Dx3nYaI/AAAAAAADRSo/9e2u3Mzpd5UIJVRo3JcNllfyRLapTxJSACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_8347.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>Be full grains of wheat on the Lord's threshing floor so that you may have weight and fall when the fork winnows you and you may be gathered upon so as to be stored in the barns of life. &nbsp;Do not be light, empty grains like the straw that the wind carries off far from the threshing floor and scatters. &nbsp;Only Christ can fill you and give you weight.<br /><br />Be filled with Christ so that you can remain on the threshing floor and be gathered up. &nbsp;As long as you remain on the threshing floor, the shovel will keep winnowing you to remove the straw from you. &nbsp;Every grain of wheat remains alone, even if it is gathered with the others in the measure and in the sack.<br /><br />The mill, the water, and the fire make the flour into one lump of dough and one loaf. &nbsp;It is a long process from the field to the bread. &nbsp;Pray for the sickle that cuts you down, for the flail that threshes you, for the threshing floor that gathers you, for the fork that winnows you, for the mill that grinds you, for the water the kneads you, and for the fire that bakes you.<br /><br />The path of sanctity extends from the field to the bread, from the dusk to the light, from the crib to the cross. <br /><br />Travel it with the joy of the resurrection.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">St. Charbel</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>Love is a Radiant Light</u></span><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-28531720331113446442019-04-23T15:29:00.001-04:002019-04-23T15:29:54.479-04:00Build well the temple of the Lord without growing weary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kJ_KJYXMxBo/XL9jyn6tFKI/AAAAAAADRPA/tFa1_J5ZJ1U1Y_qEJAnimvRcdImEoGl8wCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6921.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="798" data-original-width="720" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kJ_KJYXMxBo/XL9jyn6tFKI/AAAAAAADRPA/tFa1_J5ZJ1U1Y_qEJAnimvRcdImEoGl8wCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_6921.JPG" width="360" /></a></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">St. Charbel does not mince words: we are to be about the work of our Heavenly Father! &nbsp;What we spend our energy on and what we seek to build must be the life that He has made possible for us in His Son. &nbsp;The temple that we are to build&nbsp;</i><i>lies within us and we are to adorn it with jewels of every virtue. &nbsp;We are to labor for what does not perish. &nbsp;In similar terms, St. John Chrysostom wrote:&nbsp;</i></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>"Nothing is weaker than human affairs. Whatever term therefore one may employ to express their insignificance it will fall short of the reality." &nbsp;All knowledge and labor, all riches and worldly achievements, fall short of the reality of the new life of the Resurrection. &nbsp;Pope Benedict&nbsp;</i></span></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);">XVI said that the Resurrection is for us an "Evolutionary Leap": we have become something that we&nbsp;</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);"><i>were</i></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);">&nbsp;not before - sons and daughters of God who share in the life of Christ. &nbsp;In so far as we seek to find meaning and purpose in worldly knowledge rather than the knowledge that comes through Love, we destine ourselves to be crushed by anxiety and sadness. &nbsp;Christ&nbsp;</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);"><i>alone</i></span><i style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);">&nbsp;is our salvation and we must not rest from the labor of seeking Him.</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);">&nbsp; "</span></span><i><span style="color: #660000;">God is love; he is the goal and guide of this lost humanity. Christ is the remedy of the sick man. The water of baptism in the Spirit is what extinguishes the fire raging in the world."</span></i></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Kingdom of God is like the construction site of a temple whose building stones come from rocks taken from the quarries of this world. Human beings are the workers on the site at God’s decree, and the builders build according to his will. They hew the stones from the rocks taken from the quarries and place them stone upon stone, one after the other. And God breathes life into them so that human beings become living stones of this temple.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Many men build their own temple with the stones hewn from the rocks and claim to be their owners. They build them stone by stone, one after the other, without being able to give them life, however, because God alone is capable of providing it. Those people perish, leaving behind them the stones, rocks, and quarries, as well as their little temples built of dead stones. Subject to deterioration, they are annihilated over time. They too are perishable along with their temples.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only the temple of the Lord is eternal because it is alive. Build up this temple and be living stones in it, instead of raising your little fleeting temples with dead stones that time will ruin. Work diligently, joyfully, cooperatively, and lovingly; do so with patience, humility, and obedience to the Lord of the temple. Since you work by his decree, build according to his will.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Build well without growing weary. Do not seek rest, because that is the source of a great danger for you. If you see an idle worker, do not criticize him, do not condemn him, and do not curse him. On the contrary, with your pick or your sickle in hand, continue your work; thus you will oblige him to work, because the building belongs to both of you. The harvest is yours and his, and the whole thing belongs to the Lord of the temple and to the God of the harvest.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Respect your fellow man as you respect yourself. There is always in you something of what you see in your brother, because the other is you with a few differences. Instead of speaking against your brother, go and speak with him; if not, then kindly keep quiet.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Never condemn, and do not judge by what your eyes see. You cannot pass judgement on the water that you see in a glass, because with your eyes you cannot tell whether it is fresh or salty, drinkable or insipid.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To outward appearances, jars of wine are all alike, even if the wine inside is not the same. Look at the outside with your eyes, but at the inside with your hearts. The heart does not condemn.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Do not claim to have absolute knowledge and this build temples by the measure of the things that you know; they will fall down on your heads and kill you. Knowledge needs love in order to becomes understanding.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However great your knowledge may be, you cannot understand as long as you do not love. Love is much nobler than intellect. The logic of love is much more sublime than that of the intellect.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Knowledge without love lacks soul; it destroys a human being. The earth is a sanctified globe on which the God of the universe has set his foot. He has illuminated it with the light of the Spirit, and his divine Heart watches over it.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With their loveless knowledge, human beings have made the earth sick. Their food poisons them, their drink makes them thirsty. They mistake their illnesses for medications; the air that they breath stifles them, their food tires them, their peace causes them anxiety, their joy saddens them, their happiness torments them, their truth is an illusion and their illusion truth, their light darkness.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Human beings have more knowledge than wisdom. Their theories have become in their minds like the fog on the mountains and in the valleys; they prevent them from seeing things as they are. Their theories rob them of sight.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Their buildings rise, their morality sinks. Their worldly goods increase, their values diminish. Their speeches multiply, their prayers grow scarce. Their interests deepen, their relationships wear thin; their facades expand, their interiors become impoverished. Their roads are broadened, their vision become shortsighted.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They have many paths, but they do not lead them to each other’s houses. They have multiple means of communication, but they do not help them to communicate with each other. Their beds are spacious and comfortable, but their families are small, broken up, and exhausted. They know how to go faster without being able to wait. They are always running to make a living, forgetting to lead their lives.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They hurry toward the outside and neglect what is inside. They are prisoners who take pride in the comfort of their prisons, lost travelers who boast of the distances that they have covered, dead men who flatter themselves with the luxuriousness of their tombs. They die of hunger while sitting next to a kneading trough, poor men, yet sitting on the treasures that they themselves have buried.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why do you take a place beneath the table to eat the crumbs that fall from it when the meal is being served for you? Human beings sow thorns which, while still tender and new, caress their feet; but once they have hardened they will tear the feet of future generations.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You cut the wood, you pile the logs, you light the fire, you feed it so as to throw yourselves into it, and you wonder why you are burned by it! Humanity has gone astray, man is sick, and the world is catching fire.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">God is love; he is the goal and guide of this lost humanity. Christ is the remedy of the sick man. The water of baptism in the Spirit is what extinguishes the fire raging in the world.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Base all of your knowledge on Christ; all knowledge built apart from the foundation of Christ will condemn you. All knowledge without soul is considered ignorance.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An edifice based on man may well rise, but it ends up crushing him. Man lives in sadness and anxiety; he is satisfied and fulfilled only when he is unified in the heart of God.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Meet one another, look at one another, listen to one another, greet one another, console one another with sturdy, charitable words, go out from yourselves to visit one another, embrace one another in the love of Christ work in the Lord’s field without growing weary or bored.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">May the sound of your picks fill the valleys and drown out the noise of the world, and may the sound of your scythes’ call remind people of the harvest.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">May your prayers split the deaf rocks and cause the mute springs to gush forth. The rocks hear prayer, the springs speak about it, and together they all pray and glorify God.</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;">St. Charbel</span></div><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u>Love is a Radiant Light</u></span></div>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-23560726439471240382019-03-11T12:03:00.001-04:002019-03-11T14:25:47.769-04:00The End For Which You Were Created<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A-CnyepBlQw/XIakelu9saI/AAAAAAADQXo/S4Xiqfu7sxAt35MJAimjttHCU1g9cQKAACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6119.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A-CnyepBlQw/XIakelu9saI/AAAAAAADQXo/S4Xiqfu7sxAt35MJAimjttHCU1g9cQKAACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6119.JPG" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>The diminishment of the priesthood and the scandals surrounding it cannot be understood or healed by anything one can see or do by one's own capacity. &nbsp;In Christ alone do we receive all that we need for our sanctification and in Him alone can the Church and the priesthood be healed. &nbsp;St. Charbel tells us clearly that we cannot give what does not belong to us. &nbsp;Before all things we must stop and throw off the shackles that bind us and keep us from loving God. &nbsp;We must purify ourselves in order that our intellects might not be darkened and our hearts might not be hardened. &nbsp;We must not be under the illusion that we can offer anything to this world unless the light of Christ shines brightly within us and that we do not hinder it.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why do&nbsp;</span>human<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;beings have to descend when the path of the Lord ascends? &nbsp;People are loaded down with many burdens that bend their backs so much that their foreheads touch the ground, preventing&nbsp;</span>them<span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;from standing up and raising their heads to see the face of God.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">They try to liberate themselves from them; everyone gets rid of them only to load themselves down in other ways, and finally they find themselves weighed down with even heavier&nbsp;</span>burdens.<br /><br />Jesus Christ is the only one capable of liberating all human beings from their burdens, for a slave cannot set another slave free. <br /><br />A human being is born tied up with cords and bound with chains to which he becomes accustomed throughout his life; many are those who die without being freed from them. &nbsp;People get used to their chains; they cherish them as though they were an integral part of themselves, so that it becomes difficult for them to set themselves free of them.<br /><br />Their gleaming chains dazzle their eyes so that they no longer see the Lord's face. &nbsp;Their deafening racket prevents them from hearing His voice. &nbsp;They are so proud of the brilliance of their fetters and of their clanking that they cherish them. &nbsp;The chains may well gleam, but they are nonetheless alienating.<br /><br />Instead of polishing them, break them; instead of making music with them, unfasten them so as to free yourself from them.<br /><br />The Lord suffered to see the people for whom He was made flesh, died, and rose again in order to give them life and eternal happiness, chained up and seeking their happiness where they will not find it.<br /><br />Your happiness in this world is not of this world, for if you were of this world you would have remained in it.<br /><br />Your happiness does not lie in material goods, for they will not procure it for you. &nbsp;Why do men run about seeking gold? &nbsp;A human being is much more valuable than gold! &nbsp;He is the son of God and his value is in himself. &nbsp;Gold does not liberate a human being from his attachments; it only makes them more splendid.<br /><br />Your happiness does not come from men who cannot offer it to you, because they do not possess it, and because no one can give what does not belong to him. &nbsp;Jesus alone is able to give you true happiness.<br /><br />Only human beings live between asphalt and concrete. &nbsp;Their minds become blackened like asphalt, and their hearts harden like concrete. &nbsp;Their intellects produces only dark ideas, and their souls become empty of any love. &nbsp;Human beings are like an inert, soulless matter, and some of them resemble stones.<br /><br />Proud as they are, they stubbornly seek happiness in sin, which causes them nothing but worry, sadness, misery, and emptiness. &nbsp;They have become proud with regard to themselves, toward one another, and toward God.<br /><br />Do you not realize that the Lord is able to reduce them to dust in an instant? &nbsp;But the love of our God is great. &nbsp;He loves human beings with an unending love because they are His sons and daughters. &nbsp;He wanted them to be the light of the world, in His image.<br /><br />Every human being is a flame created by our Lord to enlighten the world. &nbsp;Every human being is a lamp made by Him to shine and to give light. &nbsp;Someone who obtains a lamp does so in order to light up the darkness. &nbsp;A lamp is made to illuminate darkness.<br /><br />But these lamps, human beings, are interested only in their appearance: they color their glass panes, cover them with ornaments, whereas God created them plain and transparent so as to protect and propagate the light. &nbsp;They have become thick and hard to the point of hiding the light, and the world remains plunged in darkness.<br /><br />These lamps that our Lord made to be bearers of light to the world turn themselves into works of art, embellished and tinted but without light. &nbsp;What good is a lamp that does not light up the darkness? &nbsp;You cannot see a lamp in the darkness unless it is lit.<br /><br />Whatever the beauty of the lamp may be, its light is even more beautiful. &nbsp;The world is going to ruin in the darkness; but it's light. &nbsp;Make your glass panes thin and transparent again so as to light up the world and to achieve the purpose for which God created you.<br /><br />Our Lord has in store a purpose that each creature must fulfill through its life. &nbsp;Contemplate all the creatures on the earth and you will find that each on of them does its work precisely and honestly; not one of them is miserable.<br /><br />The most miserable creature on earth is sure happier than a sinful human being who, at the moment of judgment, stands shamefaced before the grandeur of God's love; this love that created the universe, that gave life, is the only treasure piled up that will last so as to accompany you into the next world.<br /><br />All your treasures, your money, and your accomplishments that you think you possess here below, even your bones, will not belong to you any more.<br /><br />He who appears before Lord, empty of love, will die of shame. &nbsp;That is his true death and not the moment when he gives up his soul.<br /><br />If a human being is not transformed by love, he dies, for God is love, a love that is eternal. &nbsp;Let Him fill your hearts and let humility govern your minds. &nbsp;Pray and be converted. &nbsp;Pray to Jesus Christ, He will hear your prayer; open your hearts to Him, He will enter in and give you peace. &nbsp;Pray from the bottom of your hearts without ceasing.<br /><br />Do not bother to search for the truth far from Christ; no truth exists outside of Him. &nbsp;Christ is the only truth. &nbsp;When you know Christ, you will know truth and you will be free. &nbsp;Christ wants you to be free. &nbsp;Have no fear, take courage; &nbsp;know that Christ has conquered the world.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Homily of St. Charbel</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><u>Love is a Radiant Light</u></i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Hanna Skandar</i></span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-32628584626735736632019-02-14T11:17:00.001-05:002019-02-14T11:34:39.565-05:00The Silent Anchorite of the Tabernacle and the Crosses We Bear<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MXDmnuAvQtE/V4VTitDoPyI/AAAAAAAB864/AV7nsnQwks4LBQ_WVXvBRqU-fle6OzozQCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_2903.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MXDmnuAvQtE/V4VTitDoPyI/AAAAAAAB864/AV7nsnQwks4LBQ_WVXvBRqU-fle6OzozQCPcBGAYYCw/s640/IMG_2903.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><i>"Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you."</i> <br /><br />O beautiful words of consolation, than which none more beautiful were ever spoken at a bed of suffering! &nbsp;Every word is full of jubilation and carries the joy of the Resurrection into the hearts of men.<br /><br />These words of consolation Jesus made a reality throughout His life. &nbsp;Who could enumerate the miracles which He has worked for the salvation of men, for relief of the sick and possessed, who could estimate the blessings which He poured forth upon the human race? &nbsp;Never, during the thirty three years of His earthly pilgrimage, did any sorely tried being appeal in vain to him for help! &nbsp;Were even one such case on record, we might rouse the silent Anchorite in the tabernacle from His calm and say to Him: "You are not faithful to your beautiful promises. &nbsp;Were not all and sundry invited to Your door to receive the alms of consolation? &nbsp;Yet You abandoned this man to his sorrow and grief!" &nbsp;However, no such abandoned sufferer is to be found.<br /><br />On the contrary, we read how His soul was deeply moved by the sight of the poor widow on the street of Nain, because she brought her only son to the churchyard. &nbsp;By the grace of His dear friend Lazarus He shuddered with grief for his poor sisters. &nbsp;And when He thought of the destruction that threatened Jerusalem His eyes were filled with tears, and sighs laden with love and a cry of lamentation to His lips.<br /><br /><i>O heart of my Redeemer, Thou seemest formed of sheer goodness, sheer love, sheer compassion, and infinite pity, - a true Samaritan's heart, pure gold of love without dross!</i><br /><br />This same Heart, also beats in the tabernacle &nbsp;Therefore, I may cry out with greater confidence than before: You cross-bears of the world, raise up your heads and hope! &nbsp;Your Redemption is at hand. &nbsp;The Anchorite here in the tabernacle has an arm which conquers every sorrow and a heart which is always ready to help. &nbsp;Cry out to Him in your need. &nbsp;He will surely help you.<br /><br />Yet, what do I see? &nbsp;<i>Many a cross-bearer knits his brow and shakes his head</i>, as if he could not believe my words. &nbsp;I heard thousands disputing and complaining. &nbsp;"Go to the tabernacle and pray for relief?" they ask. &nbsp;"Better save ourselves the trouble. &nbsp;It is no use. &nbsp;How long have I not dragged my cross; how often have I not appealed to Jesus in the tabernacle - yet always there is the old sorrow and old worry!" <br /><br />A beautiful task here falls to my lot. &nbsp;<i>I am privileged to defend</i> the loving Son of God. &nbsp;How often have I not wished that I had lived 2000 years ago, when they haled Jesus into court, and produced false witnesses against Him! &nbsp;I would have pleaded for Him until my tongue cleaved to my mouth. &nbsp;Unfortunately I did not exist at that time; but now I am alive and able to plead for You, O kind Redeemer, and it is an easy task to clear You from the reproach just made.<br /><br />They assert that You did not relieve them of their cross. &nbsp;Did you promise that? &nbsp;The Apocalypse holds out the certain prospect of relief, but only for that triumphant Easter morning, when we shall shake the dust of the earth from our feet and be allowed to enter the Heavenly Jerusalem: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away" (Apoc. 21,4). &nbsp;Not until that blessed hour will the bells ring out the eternal Sabbath, when every care will cease and every cross will be lifted.<br /><br />The silent Anchorite in the tabernacle only wishes to refresh, to console, and to strengthen, not to remove the cross and its burden entirely from our shoulders. &nbsp;Everlasting praise and thanks be to Him for willing to do only this! &nbsp;For this "less" is "more," nay "considerably more," seeing that one joy of Heaven outweighs a thousand sighs on earth.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BV6Leyk8EnQ/XGWB2bQe2cI/AAAAAAADQGY/xM1MqY7FO6EM4qcGQGv51DG9EldxLlt3gCLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_pmuwpaSVX31ud8mfx_540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="540" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BV6Leyk8EnQ/XGWB2bQe2cI/AAAAAAADQGY/xM1MqY7FO6EM4qcGQGv51DG9EldxLlt3gCLcBGAs/s1600/tumblr_pmuwpaSVX31ud8mfx_540.jpg" /></a></div><br />How would things have shaped themselves if the Eternal Father had granted the fervent petition of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, to spare Him the bitter chalice of sorrow? &nbsp;Humanity would have been kept forever in filth and sorrow of sin; Heaven would still be barred, while hell would drag down into its fiery abyss far more victims than before. &nbsp;Instead the Father sent an angel to console and strengthen the agonizing Savior, thus enabling Him to drink the chalice to the dregs. &nbsp;And as a reward He is enthroned forever for all eternity on the right hand of the Father, as conqueror over death and hell, and sees redeemed mankind marching in a long procession to Heaven.<br /><br />A skillful gardener acts the same way when the weight of the fruit of July threatens to break down a tree. &nbsp;He does not pluck the green apples before they are ripe, but props the branches with strong poles, to enable the tree to go on bearing its fruit until it becomes ripe.<br /><br />The Redeemer in the tabernacle desires<i> only to refresh</i> those who turn to Him for help, <i>but He will not completely relieve them of the cross which they bear</i>. &nbsp;Some day when death takes the cross from their shoulders, and harvest time is arrived, and they behold the many full baskets of merits which they have gathered by patiently carrying the cross, they will turn to the tabernacle and give fervent thanks to Jesus, that he has refreshed them, but not taken away the cross.<br /><br />This is one of the great laws which God has made with reference to the sanctification of men. &nbsp;St. Catherine has formulated it as follows in her 78th letter: "From the beginning to the end of the world God never wills that anything great should be accomplished except through great suffering." &nbsp;And in the Apocalypse, when one of the ancients asks in pious curiosity: "These that are clothed in white robes, who are they and whence came they?" the answer comes: "These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. &nbsp;Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth the throne, shall dwell over them. &nbsp;They shall no more hunger or thirst, neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat. &nbsp;For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall rule them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life." (Apocalypse. vii, 13 sqq.)<br /><br />Now we know how the silent Anchorite in the tabernacle occupies His time. There are millions of cross-bearers who daily approach Him for comfort, strength and relief. &nbsp;Truly, He has no idle hour, and boredom will never be His lot.<br /><br />But<i> is He adapted to the described task? &nbsp;Has He an adequate comprehension of our needs?</i> &nbsp;Jesus son of Sirach asks: "What doth he know that hath not been tried? &nbsp;He that hath learned many things shall show forth understanding" (Ecclus. 34,9).<br /><br />It is difficult for one to comprehend the meaning of soul torments, earthly cares, and family troubles if he has never known anything but the sunny side of life. &nbsp;To pour out one's heart to such a man is almost like addressing him in a strange language utterly unknown to him. &nbsp;<i>In order that the Redeemer should adequately fulfill His office of consoler, it is necessary that, besides His strong arm and compassionate heart, He should have a profound understanding of every kind of misery and affliction.</i><br /><br />Now Christ is a Master in everything, including the comprehension of our troubles and the art of comforting the afflicted. &nbsp;Did He not spend thirty three years in a veritable school of sorrow? &nbsp;And does not St. Paul assure all cross bearers that "we have not a high priest who cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin"? (Heb. 4,15.) "Let us go therefore," he continues, "with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid" (Heb. 4,16).<br /><br />We sigh over poverty and privation. &nbsp;But did not our Blessed Redeemer lie as a new born babe on rough straw in a stable? &nbsp;Had He not to flee to Egypt, and be satisfied for many years with the hard bread of banishment? &nbsp;After such trials, should He not know poverty and privation? &nbsp;Who does not know the touching confession made in His later life: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head"? (Matt. 8,20).<br /><br />From early morning till late at night our shoulders are pressed by the heavy yoke of toil, and yet we eke out a miserable existence. If we complain of our hard lot to the Redeemer, will He be lacking in sympathy? &nbsp;He who for eighteen years labored from early morning till dusk at a carpenter's bench, toiling and moiling to exhaustion?<br /><br />Fate deals us violent blows, and often an accident destroys all our hopes, A sudden flash of lightning, and the edifice of our future is a blazing mass of cinders. &nbsp;But was not the bloody sword of the executioner drawn at the very cradle of the silent Anchorite who now inhabits the tabernacle? &nbsp;Was He not compelled to fly with haste under cover of darkness? &nbsp;Did not death rob Him of a dear father and later of a true friend, Lazarus? &nbsp;Surely He knows how roughly fate can deal with men.<br /><br />You sit alone in your room at night, and your eyes are red with weeping. &nbsp;A carefully reared son has gone astray, or a daughter has fallen. &nbsp;Your heart is almost breaking. Oh, remember that in the nearby tabernacle dwells One who understands you as no one else! &nbsp;Peter, whom He had surrounded with love and kindness, denied Him three times, and Judas betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. &nbsp;Therefore do not complain: "Great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee?" (Lam. 2, 13). In the tabernacle is One who understands and will comfort you.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n_Htp0GF0Es/VRFQ-uNd4HI/AAAAAAABNTg/NYXjnt6SCrEVcBeWKIHctC_mF9j0kgrbgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/tumblr_n082f9hYJA1qedpp2o1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n_Htp0GF0Es/VRFQ-uNd4HI/AAAAAAABNTg/NYXjnt6SCrEVcBeWKIHctC_mF9j0kgrbgCPcBGAYYCw/s640/tumblr_n082f9hYJA1qedpp2o1_500.png" width="513" /></a></div><br />You are persecuted, slandered, misunderstood. &nbsp;Our Divine Savior was abused as a glutton and a drunkard, who associated with Beelzebub, the prince of devils. &nbsp;His enemies wanted to stone Him and the Gerasenes shut their doors when He approached them with blessings and graces. &nbsp;Open your heart to Him, He will comfort you.<br /><br />You are oppressed by grief; your soul enveloped in darkness and storm. Was not the Redeemer sorrowful unto death? &nbsp;And what a cry of lamentation came from His lips on Good Friday: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" &nbsp;He knows what grief is. &nbsp;With what love did He not go with the two disciples to Emmaus and fill their heavy hearts with joy and hope. &nbsp;To you also, as to them, He will speak from the tabernacle and infuse your should with new courage.<br /><br />You are ill, you suffer intense pain; could He, who was scourged, crowned with thorns, and nailed to the Cross, be deaf to your complaints?<br /><br /><i>The silent Anchorite is the best comforter in every earthly sorrow</i>. &nbsp;None other has His strong arm, His loving heart, and His wide experience. &nbsp;Therefore I can never be sufficiently astonished at His saying: "Come to me all you that labor and are burdened!" &nbsp;Does that not sound like a command and an impatient bidding? &nbsp;Must He then compel the cross bears to come to Him? &nbsp;It seems to me He should rather have said: "Do not storm my house so incessantly, you who labor and are burdened!" &nbsp;How explain this riddle?<br /><br />Man is three parts sense and passion, and his mind is chiefly concerned with the present. &nbsp;Therefore, whoever flatters his sense and sweetness the bitterness of the passing moment, seems to him the ideal comforter. &nbsp;It was always thus, otherwise the loud lament had never escaped the lips of God: "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and yet gates thereof, be very desolate, for my people have done two evils. &nbsp;They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jer. 2, 12).<br /><br />From the heights of the tabernacle the Redeemer sees how many cross bearers hasten to invoke false comforters; therefore He literally commands us: "Come to me! &nbsp;But beneath this apparently harsh tone is concealed a world of love.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>The Anchorite in the Tabernacle</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">Rev. F.X Esser, S.J.</span><br /><br /><br /><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-67459433702307365052019-01-15T16:53:00.003-05:002019-01-15T16:53:53.596-05:00Cling to Him<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d9CiwyyMjj8/XD5WSCdRWbI/AAAAAAADPjc/v3FzHDhONCEZQXGegaA5PoJqyhVB_YPZgCLcBGAs/s1600/3ccd8fde7f488ebc26216bfdec9ceeba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="939" data-original-width="736" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d9CiwyyMjj8/XD5WSCdRWbI/AAAAAAADPjc/v3FzHDhONCEZQXGegaA5PoJqyhVB_YPZgCLcBGAs/s400/3ccd8fde7f488ebc26216bfdec9ceeba.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Dear Daughters,</i></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Above all, you must cling to the Beloved. When the tears shed at the feet of the Eucharistic Lord have changed from those of gratitude and love to those of frustration: cling to Him. When the warm and content hours of Adoration you enjoyed at the start have given way to restless minutes, straining towards an hour, spent by a cold and distracted heart: cling to Him. When abundant promises made in love have become meager resolutions made with fear and doubt: cling to Him. Above all, cling to Him.</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Do not cling to your feelings — they shift and vanish like smoke and betray the hearts of men. One moment they expand like a wide road before the pilgrim soul and the next they contract entirely and abandon the traveler to a perilous fall. Whatever your feelings may be, whether those of love and joy or of anger and bitterness, abandon them to the Lord and then continue on the narrow, but constant, path of obscure faith that surely leads to the Beloved.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Do not cling to your plans — they fill your heart with anxiety and a multitude of distractions that act as so many ties to bind you to this life and keep you from running towards the Beloved. Pray for courage and trust and then allow your mind to truly forget all things but the One who is present before you. Why do you allow created things to take the place of the eternal One in your heart? Are you afraid of isolation, or loneliness, or that you will find yourself unhappy? Truly these are fearsome thoughts. Yet, the giving of one’s whole heart unreservedly is the leap of faith demanded by true love. It is the risk all take, who take for their only possession the Eucharistic Lord. It is the risk you too must take.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>It is not the Lord who has changed in your seasons of desolation; it is the mind that has become darkened by the affairs of this world, and the heart that has grown cold from a multitude of distractions. The Eucharistic Lord remains ever the burning furnace of charity that is never extinguished; the heart full of love that is never diminished.</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(163, 0, 3); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #a30003; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Renounce, then, all that would draw you away from the Lord’s presence. Spurn your inclinations and make choices based on faith; turn from the mere feeling of desire and make true acts of love; set aside your anxiety to please others and seek to please your Lord. Persevere daughters. Amidst your own coldness of heart, amidst your distractions, amidst your lack of desire — persevere. Exercise and stretch your hearts in prayer, spend your hours with the Lord and, when you can bear the difficulty no more, look to the Host and stay a little longer.&nbsp;</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Why, you only just came into church and are you already thinking of leaving it again? Remember, there was a time when it was your sweetest delight to be with Me; and now even in My presence you find the moments hanging heavy on your hands. What is the reason, My child? Why have you changed so? Am I no longer your God? Does it no longer please you to be with Me? Are you afraid perhaps? Oh, what can it be that makes you so ill at ease?&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">When I poured into your soul the sweetness of My consolations, oh, then the hour of adoration passed away all too quickly. You prayed . . . prayed . . . Oh how you prayed! But now that I offer you a tiny taste of My chalice, of My sorrowfulness, you seem to feel a sort of repugnance towards Me. You are so silent — so repelling!&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">My child, are those the resolutions you made? . . . the ones you asked Me to bless? How often you have fervently assured Me that I am your only love, your only consolation, your God and your all! Oh, your heart seems to be so forgetful! Or has some other creature perhaps taken My place therein? Can it be possible that you have found something better than I am? Oh, why, why do you want to leave Me so soon?&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Are you not just a little ashamed to get tired of Me? Have you nothing to say to Me, child? Come, tell Me some of the many things you are always telling others. Just mix a little love with the words and then tell Me everything. Without haste. One thing after the other. Tell Me about the unpleasant things and the troubles; tell Me about your little trials; about the plans you are making; the difficulties that await you. Are you perhaps afraid of meeting disagreeable persons? Of living with them? Or are you afraid of some misfortune? Some rude disappointment? Some painful experiences? Just tell me everything! Keep nothing back.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">From time to time your behavior is so strange. When your poor heart has to fight distractions you quickly lose courage and run away from Me. Do you not know that even distractions can be transformed into a glorious prayer? Only listen to Me, Me child. I will tell you how.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Are you distracted because of your daily work? Because of the duties of your state of life? Do these things keep you from prayer? Yes? But why do you not tell Me everything at once? Why do you not confide in Me? Gather all those things together and bring them to My feet. If you do so I will accompany your every step with My blessing. I will calm your fears. I will make your work fruitful.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Are you distracted because of some joy that you hope for? Some expectation? Are you? But why not speak to Me about the desires of your heart? Why not tell Me what you long for? Who knows — perhaps I alone can procure that joy for you. Who knows — perhaps I alone can make it full and lasting.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Are you distracted because someone has offended you, hurt you? Yes? But, child, why do you not tell Me that at once? Tell me about your sensitiveness, your anger, your revengeful thoughts. Why do you not tell Me how touchy, how irritable you are, how full of bitterness our heart is, how restless your soul? Do you think I am not able to restore peace to you? Have you forgotten that I can transform this bitterness into sweetness, this storm into calm? So be of good cheer, My child, and just talk it all over with Me. In this way your distractions can become the best of prayers.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Sometimes you complain that no one in the world has a kind word for you. You are sad because no one seems to be interested in you. Oh, your poor, deal soul! See, I am the guilty one. I have put this atmosphere of quiet and seclusion around your I have placed you in this solitude. Have you never thought of that? Have you never realized this? And why do I do it? Just because I want . . . you to remain with Me. I want you to belong wholly to Me; no one else should have any right to you. I bid all others to be silent: I wish to be the only one to speak to you. Of, if you but know how much I have to say to you! But if you leave so quickly, My child, you will have no chance to listen to Me at all. My voice, you know, cannot be heard in the bustle of the world: it is too soft and low. It is more gentle than the throbbing of your heart. If you want to hear it everything must be very quiet around you.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">You think that when you visit Me you alone do the talking. No, no; that will never do; I, too, have something to say. I have many bits of advice to give you, some reproaches to make, some consolation to offer. But if you have no time, if you go from me so quickly, how can I whisper anything to you?&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">So just stay here, My child. Yes; only be silent. I will do the talking, never fear! Nor are My words going to be wafted away, like a sweet odor in the air; no, they must be stamped upon your soul as the seal of My love. So stay here, and you will see that there is still someone who has a good word for you — who is wholly yours!&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">See, child, there are so many men who want to have nothing at all to do with Me. And that despite the fact that I have heaped benefits upon them. But it seems that My gifts have made them the more forgetful, My consolations, the more heartless. Oh, what a detestable thing ingratitude is! What an ugly stain upon the mind of man! And upon this stain I must gaze continually.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">At least <i>you</i> must remain with Me a little while. Tell Me that you love Me, that you have not forgotten the tears you once wept at My feet, that you still remember the consoling sweetness that I poured so abundantly into you heart. Yes; and tell Me that the only reason why you did not let the abundance of your sufferings cast you into despair was that My saving hand was outstretched to you. Tell Me how you thankfully owe it to My grace that you still look upon life as a blessing. For, oh! You have no idea of the joy and satisfaction which I find in a soul that shows itself grateful for My benefits.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Ah, if you but knew what I must see and hear from the tabernacle! Sins, and always sins; blasphemies; and then blasphemies again; from far; and from near; they are cruelly flung into My face. I am forced to see everything, to hear everything. My child, these things strike My heart like hailstones. Oh, I beg of you, do not leave Me so quickly! Stay with Me a little longer. Tell Me, my child, why are you in such a hurry, why do you run away so soon? Do you not see how a certain dryness of the soul is the direct result of your great haste? You complain to Me, and to your confessor, and to everybody who is willing to listen, that you no longer experience sweetness and consolation in your practices of piety. But do you not see you have not even the time and the patience to remain a tiny little while with Me . . . with Me . . . and I am the source of all spiritual delights. You complain that you feel cold; and, My child, at the same time you have not the perseverance to remain for half an hour at the fire here, to warm yourself at the glowing hearth of My Sacrament.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">So do not leave Me at once, My child. Stay with Me. Pray. Meditate. Examine your conscience. And if you can do nothing else just stay and listen to what I tell you. Look upon the tabernacle. Marvel at the whiteness of the glimmering host, and try at least a little to penetrate this fair white veil that covers Me. You will discover something surely; and some few words you will most certainly hear.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">My child, you well know that I have created and redeemed you, in order that you may one day live with Me for all eternity. Therefore enjoy a foretaste of heaven already now; taste a drop of the bliss of your future paradise. Listen to Me, dear Christian soul . . . do not go away . . . Oh, be so good as to stay here a little longer!&nbsp;</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Eucharistic Whisperings, Volume II</i></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div><br /><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-26720672529911593872018-07-16T20:14:00.003-04:002018-07-16T20:14:52.698-04:00The Forgotten Great "One"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ohTZkTdOCGc/W00uiw39zTI/AAAAAAADDVo/eJAwKsu1Knc-zvV0oMJMe7gw-L2KKnNQwCLcBGAs/s1600/Women_Praying_in_Church_1875-1885.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="443" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ohTZkTdOCGc/W00uiw39zTI/AAAAAAADDVo/eJAwKsu1Knc-zvV0oMJMe7gw-L2KKnNQwCLcBGAs/s640/Women_Praying_in_Church_1875-1885.JPG" width="492" /></a></div>&nbsp;<span style="color: #660000;"><i>We children of men are made up of five part senses, and only the sixth part is given up to understanding and faith. &nbsp;But even the little that our senses grasp, must not be hid modestly like a violet in the grass. &nbsp;It must thrust itself forward, else men will not heed it. &nbsp;We give fitting attention to the sun which sends down its scorching rays and to the strong wind which violently blows off our hat, or tears a loose tile from the roof. &nbsp;But at the same time we go our way regardless of every flower, every beetle, and every blade of grass that we tread on, and a whole world of small and great wonders of creation is trampled underfoot. &nbsp;We do not heed this other world. &nbsp;This is the rule, and under this&nbsp;rule the Son of God also suffers in His silent sanctuary.</i></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>. . . the anxious lover who weeps compassionately for the abandoned One and would gladly make Him the center of all our feelings, thoughts and endeavors, queries: Why, O Blessed Redeemer, doest Thou not arise like a pillar of clouds or fire, casting a bright light by day and gloomy shadows by night on the pathway of the sons of men? &nbsp;Why dost Thou not descend on us like a hurricane from heaven, or hover like a tongue of fire over the heads of Thy devoted servants? &nbsp;The eyes of all men would then be on Thee. &nbsp;Would that Thou wouldst appear in our midst under the energetic form which has been described by John the Baptist - in one hand with winnowing shovel and in the other an axe, here sifting the wheat, there felling the hardened stalks as if they were rotten trees. &nbsp;And if only the tabernacle would become one day like the heights of Tabor, enveloped in light!<br /><br />But no! &nbsp;The Redeemer hears the well-meant lamentation; it comforts Him; it shows Him that a friendly heart throbs for Him; yet He will alter nothing. &nbsp;He abides in retirement, far away from the broad highway, where everything is arranged for show and to attract attention. &nbsp;His dwelling place on the altar is small, only two or three feet square. &nbsp;There He abides quietly and is hardly talked about. &nbsp;Nowhere is there anyone so retired and contented as He. &nbsp;But rarely is He to be see on the street. &nbsp;True, on those occasions, in Catholic countries, He allows a little light to shed its rays in front of Him and a little bell to tinkle. &nbsp;Whoever meets Him, takes off his hat if he is well disposed, and makes the Sign of the Cross. &nbsp;But Jesus goes on His way quickly, and soon everything is as before.<br /><br />At times, too, He gives an audience to His faithful subjects. &nbsp;Then He occupies a golden throne over the tabernacle. &nbsp;Thick clouds of incense and joyous hymns arise and peal through the church. &nbsp;But Jesus does not stir; He utters not a word, nay, not even a whisper, much less speaks "as one who has power" (Matt 7:29).<br /><br />Yet He is God and His knowledge is all-embracing. &nbsp;Are we to assume that He does not know that we are like little children, to captivate whom one must be surrounded with sunlight and elated by wild trumpeting? &nbsp;Did not dense crowds of people march behind His ancestor, David, and sing his praise in triumphant strains? &nbsp;True, David on that occasion was decorated with green bay leaves and was returning as victor from a blood drenched battlefield. &nbsp;But no notice was taken of him later, when he fled.<br /><br />Jesus knows all this very well. &nbsp;He knows, too, how easily He could attract the applause of the multitude. &nbsp;It would be quite enough to thrust back the white veil of the host and appear to us in the majesty of the Son of God. &nbsp;Instead of a few faithful servants, millions would then fall on their knees and humbly confess: "Truly this is the Son of God!" (Matt 27:54). &nbsp;Yet He seems to do the exact opposite. &nbsp;He wraps Himself up more closely in the white veil, and addresses to that little band the well-known question: "Will you also go away?" (John 6:68).<br /><br />Why this peculiar attitude? &nbsp;If Jesus were a human being with faults, one would perhaps attribute His attitude to unreasonable obstinacy, owing to the fact that the idea of keeping Himself concealed lies like an immovable rock in the clear mountain lake of His soul, and never will yield, but force all waters to move around it, whether they hiss or rage or surge. &nbsp;But He is God, the highest perfection, and hence all His acts must have a profound, noble, and pure meaning.<br /><br />The veneration which is found on outward appearance and clear perception resembles brummagem gold, which is not a suitable offering to the all-holy God. &nbsp;Its brilliance may rejoice human eyes, but can not deceive the Searcher of hearts. &nbsp;If our veneration is to resemble pure gold free from base alloy and dross, which can stand the test of fire, then faith must join our hands, and faith must bend our knees. &nbsp;And even if, as on Calvary, there should be found but two souls at the tabernacle, two souls resembling Mary and John in loyalty and faith, their devotion would seem to Him more acceptable than if a whole crowd, dazzled by the brilliance of His outward appearance, should lie on the ground, trembling and shuddering.<br /><br />Once upon a time the Redeemer went about the country with His Apostles in simple pilgrim's garb. &nbsp;At the first glance He might have been taken for one of them, only that His eyes shone more wonderfully, and His bearing was that of a king. &nbsp;Suddenly He put the blunt question: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matt 16:15). &nbsp;Peter impetuously thrust himself forward and worshipped the simple preacher as the Incarnate Son of God. &nbsp;Was not the heart of the Redeemer overcome with joy by the homage, and was not Peter's noble deed rewarded by a blessing: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona!" (Matt 16:17). &nbsp;On another occasion the Savior had cured the sick before a vast multitude, and driven out devils, and finally had multiplied a few loaves of bread in a miraculous fashion. &nbsp;The crowd marveled and expressed their admiration in unmeasured applause. &nbsp;Finally they wanted to make Him king. &nbsp;Did this turbulent shouting and hand-clapping make His heart beat faster and force from His lips a fresh blessing? &nbsp;No. &nbsp;He fled from their midst and escaped into a solitary spot in the mountains to pray. <br /><br />Yes, "Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe!"<br /><br />So we must content ourselves with the modest tabernacle. &nbsp;It will never be enveloped in heavy thunder clouds, like Sinai, nor yet in the glory of Heaven, like Tabor. &nbsp;If it were, the worship of the Eucharistic God would be far, far easier for us human beings, so dependent upon our senses. &nbsp;But much would be thereby sacrificed in worth and merit.<br /><br />But one thing we can and will do; namely, to nourish and strengthen the light of faith by contemplation and prayer and by the grace of God, so that it may grow to be a clear and bright sun that will send its rays through the misty veil of the tabernacle and manifest to us the hidden world of wonders and miracles. &nbsp;Do thou, O hidden God in the Blessed Sacrament, "increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5).<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><u>The Silent Anchorite of the Tabernacle</u></i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Rev. F.X. Esser, S.J.</i></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-47183742733316759912018-06-19T08:28:00.000-04:002018-06-19T08:28:09.445-04:00My Beloved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LaFMMB7uDHU/Wyjrf2snFlI/AAAAAAADBIo/Wsxnqu0kDX4OMTQc2YS9oQX2CJKtEpt_ACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LaFMMB7uDHU/Wyjrf2snFlI/AAAAAAADBIo/Wsxnqu0kDX4OMTQc2YS9oQX2CJKtEpt_ACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_6053.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Is Jesus your Beloved? . . . do you see His beauty? . . . do you see Him as the Eternal Father sees Him? &nbsp;So many are captivated by the things of this world that but pass into dust. &nbsp;Even His priests, who serve daily at the altar approach the privilege morosely, as though bored and put out by the task. &nbsp; &nbsp;How can they speak to others of the Lord if they see not His beauty themselves? . . . if they have no desire in their hearts for Him.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>You must bring yourself to the school of the Eucharistic Master and there you must listen to His word of love and gaze upon His Eucharistic Face. &nbsp;Pray that He opens your eyes and the eyes of His priests to this Eternal Beauty . . . that He would implant in your and their hearts the desire for Him and nothing more. Above all may He put within your hearts the longing to hear those when you receive the Holy Eucharist: "This is My Beloved." &nbsp;Prepare yourselves for this Daughters and seek it out devoutly.</i></span><br /><br />It was no mortal man who called Jesus that. &nbsp;No; it was the Eternal Father Himself . . . He spoke those words at the Savior's baptism by St. John in the Jordan . . . at the transfiguration on the heights of Tabor.<br /><br />That voice of the heavenly Father is still re-echoing as sweetest music throughout the world. &nbsp;In the tabernacle's shadow it calls out to Catholics everywhere. &nbsp;How tender the words: "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."<br /><br />How very beautiful Jesus must be! &nbsp;What rare beauty there must be in His intellect . . . &nbsp;what beauty in His will . . . how strikingly beautiful must be His sacred Person?<br /><br />And yet - what do I do? . . . &nbsp;I forget the beauty of Jesus . . . I go in search of earthly beauty . . . .I let myself be lead astray and blinded by it. &nbsp;And all the while, here in the tabernacle, I have all that I seek. &nbsp;Here I have that which alone can make me happy, which alone can satisfy my hunger for the beautiful. &nbsp;Here I have Beauty itself - Beauty ever ancient and ever new. &nbsp;Oh, why do I weary myself in this vain search for beauty among creatures! &nbsp;And all the while, in my strange folly, I have flattered myself on the attractiveness of my own person!<br /><br />What a light of eternal love must shine in the Father's eyes when He gazes upon His beloved Son! &nbsp;How the angels and saints of God must glow with happiness when they gaze upon the beauty of Jesus! &nbsp;And to think that while the whole heavenly court gazes in rapture and ecstasy upon the sacred Host I do not so much as think of the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.<br /><br />Of course it is true: my bodily eyes see naught of the beauty of Jesus . . . but the eyes of faith . . . what do I see with them? Nothing? &nbsp;Alas! if so, then how fast asleep my faith may be, how very, very weak.<br /><br />The great, almighty God finds His pleasure in Jesus . . . in Him He is well pleased . . . Am I pleased with Jesus too? . . . Oh, to my shame I must say it: I have loved the fleshpots of Egypt more than the manna of the wilderness . . . like the murmuring Jews of old. &nbsp;If there is anything delicious and sweet on earth it is this living Manna which comes down from heaven itself, this Bread of life, this Food of angels.<br /><br />My taste has been spoiled . . . I see it now. &nbsp;And it is all due to the fact that I have not the proper conception and appreciation of the Holy Eucharist. &nbsp;I do not know how to love and treasure the Blessed Sacrament.<br /><br />What then must I do? &nbsp;I must go to school to my Eucharistic Master . . . I must sit at His feet and listen eagerly to His divine words . . . and I must keep them all in my heart.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BHIGdKNWRd0/U1z38Z3YdyI/AAAAAAAArkg/_UUKvaqcuQg56HEiVO42FZZS--5EitwDgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/mikhail-nesterov-christ-with-martha-and-mary-1911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="900" height="214" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BHIGdKNWRd0/U1z38Z3YdyI/AAAAAAAArkg/_UUKvaqcuQg56HEiVO42FZZS--5EitwDgCPcBGAYYCw/s320/mikhail-nesterov-christ-with-martha-and-mary-1911.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In my heart . . . Would it not, then, be the best and simplest way for me to beg Jesus to come into my heart in Holy Communion? . . . And when He is with me I will reverently ask Him, in childlike simplicity, to make a little bargain with me. He may remain in my heart as in a dwelling place, but in return He must enclose me within His own Heart. &nbsp;Where could I learn the things of heaven better or more quickly than in such a sanctuary? &nbsp;Just there will the soul learn to see everything in a true spiritual light; just there will it learn the secret of sanctity. &nbsp;Then, too, if Jesus dwells in my heart and I in the Heart of Jesus, I shall find great favor with the Eternal Father; and also I shall have a share in the words of Mt. Tabor and the Jordan: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."<br /><br />A beloved of the Eternal Father? . . . I? . . . Yes; and why not? &nbsp;Why not, if I am one with Jesus . . . if His blood flows in my veins . . . if His sacred body has been united with mine . . . if His soul has been melted into mine . . . if His divinity has been poured out over my whole being . . . if Jesus finds His happiness in being with me - indeed, why should not I also be the beloved of God?<br /><br />Ah! how joyfully I am going to Mass early tomorrow morning, and to Holy Communion. &nbsp;I will do my very best to receive the Savior as devoutly as possible. &nbsp;Then when I have Him in my heart I will fly to heaven on the wings of faith . . . I will prostrate myself before the throne of the Almighty and will say to Him in childlike love: "Eternal Father, art Thou now well pleased with me? &nbsp;Oh, I am wondering what the answer of my God will be.<br /><br />What a beautiful day tomorrow will be!<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>Eucharistic Whisperings</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">Rt.Rev. Msgr. Guglielmo Reyna</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-75821930020859006032018-06-18T10:53:00.005-04:002018-06-18T10:53:55.034-04:00your whole life must be a continuous act of thanksgiving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-El-bRvln5EU/Wye7oBhoaJI/AAAAAAADBE0/REkXaQx0iCkpl3C1Yt6U6zUfla6wPPamwCLcBGAs/s1600/Legros_-_Communion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="386" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-El-bRvln5EU/Wye7oBhoaJI/AAAAAAADBE0/REkXaQx0iCkpl3C1Yt6U6zUfla6wPPamwCLcBGAs/s640/Legros_-_Communion.jpg" width="534" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>So often a spirit of presumption shapes our approach to God and is followed, perhaps more shamefully, with a spirit of ingratitude. &nbsp;We receive our Lord, the gift of the Holy Eucharist and His many graces, and yet so rarely if ever show gratitude for those gifts let alone consider the debt we owe Him. &nbsp;Our hearts are hardened and our minds oblivious to the&nbsp;thanksgiving that Christ offered His own Father when at last he was able to pour Himself out in love for us and unite Himself to us forever; this all in the face of the humiliations, outrages and offenses that He could so clearly see lay ahead. &nbsp;Daughters, what response will you make to this reality . . . when so many . . . including His own priests . . . approach and leave the altar with hearts hard as stone? &nbsp;You must seek to make your whole life a continuous act of thanksgiving. &nbsp;Furthermore, gratitude for the gift received and the avoidance of sin are not enough. &nbsp;No, "</i></span><i><span style="color: #660000;">it is rather a case of acting towards Jesus with all the nobility of soul and with all the gentle considerateness becoming to a child of God and a disciple of Christ the Savior. &nbsp;Ah no! it is a case of meeting Him with all the generosity and magnanimity of which the heart of man is capable."</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Tell your Lord of your love for Him. &nbsp;Offer him your poverty, humiliations; the drudgeries of daily life, sufferings and sickness and even your eventual death. &nbsp;Though small and insignificant&nbsp;these tokens if offered in love "</i></span><i><span style="color: #660000;">will be changed into heavenly gold worthy of being formed into a diadem to crown His kingly brow . . . and your humiliations will be transformed into sweet smelling incense worthy of being burned in the censers of the angels before the very throne of God . . . whereas your sufferings will be changed into myrrh that will preserve from all taint of corruption your faith, your hope and your charity."</span></i><br /><br />It was at the Last Supper, on the night before He died, that Jesus instituted the Blessed Sacrament. &nbsp;When the solemn moment came wherein He was to give Himself to us, His Sacred Heart overflowed with joyous affection; and He raised His eyes to His heavenly Father in thanksgiving that now at last He would have the happiness of binding Himself for all time to the hearts of men. &nbsp;It is indeed true, - in that sacred moment the Savior clearly foresaw all the humiliations, all the outrages and offenses, to which He would be subjected in the Sacrament of His supreme love . . &nbsp;but He thought more of the love than of the pain . . . He thought more, far more, of all that He could give to men than all that He had to expect from them . . . And divine sentiments of unutterable gratitude filled His very being! &nbsp;And why? . . . O the marvel of it! &nbsp;Because now it was made possible for Him to enrich souls of men with uncounted graces and numberless blessings.<br /><br />Men give thanks - if they give thanks at all - only after benefits have been received . . . &nbsp;But Jesus gives thanks that now He may shower His favors upon men, His heavenly Father so ordaining. &nbsp;It is His greatest joy to make His creatures happy. &nbsp;He would make them happy even at the risk of receiving only ingratitude in return.<br /><br />Yes; Jesus takes it for granted that His love will be repaid with ingratitude. &nbsp;But what a shame it would be for you to belong to the crowd of the ungrateful . . .what a shame! &nbsp;Jesus thanks the Father that He may be all yours and become all yours in Holy Communion . . . and you - what do you do? &nbsp;Are you truly grateful to Him for coming into your heart in Holy Communion, for being your constant Companion in the tabernacle there, for daily offering Himself for you in the unceasing Sacrifice of the Mass? &nbsp;Oh, be sure to remember this: if you wish honestly to pay your debts - the debts of gratitude that you owe to Jesus - you must be convinced that the short and often distracted thanksgiving that you make after Holy Communion does not suffice . . . it is not enough . . . more is needed. &nbsp;Simply your whole life must be a continuous act of thanksgiving for the untold benefits that you receive from Him in His adorable Sacrament. &nbsp;Nor is it merely a case of avoiding sin - ah no! that is not enough for a soul that is conscious of its Eucharistic dignity. &nbsp;Ah no! it is rather a case of acting towards Jesus with all the nobility of soul and with all the gentle considerateness becoming to a child of God and a disciple of Christ the Savior. &nbsp;Ah no! it is a case of meeting Him with all the generosity and magnanimity of which the heart of man is capable.<br /><br />Jesus gives you His very Self; and He not only gives you His Divine Person, but together with it He likewise gives you His grace, His love, and His whole life. &nbsp;So, if there is even a spark of gratitude in your heart, you must feel bound to give Him in return all that you are, all that you have, all that you do. &nbsp;In a word, you must work for Him, and live and die for Him, and that with all the greater generosity, since He does not deprive you of the blessings of gratitude but lets you continue to enjoy them to the full. &nbsp;You give and give . . . and in giving thanks you nevertheless receive - the reward of a grateful heart.<br /><br />Now you know wherein your duty lies. &nbsp;Enjoy gladly the earthly blessings that God gives you; but at the same time think, love, speak, and act out of gratitude towards Him. &nbsp;Rejoice in the gifts of His grace; but at the same time pray, meditate, and receive the Sacraments out of gratitude towards Him. &nbsp;Draw nearer to the grave with quiet peace, become old and wrinkled and bent, prepare yourself for death - in gratitude towards Him. &nbsp;All that you see, all that you have, all that you do, is little enough, as you know full well; but this little takes on infinite value when it is offered to Him with the tender love of a grateful heart. &nbsp;And you were to be pitied indeed, were you, because of the littleness of your gifts, to resist the pious promptings of a heart overflowing with affectionate gratitude.<br /><br />Surely you must have been worried time and again because you could not make what you considered a worthy thanksgiving after Holy Communion . . . because you did not know what to say to the Savior in your visits to the Blessed Sacrament. &nbsp;But put aside this anxiety and regret now . . . put it aside . . . and in the future act in this way:<br /><br />Tell the Savior, quite simply and confidingly, that you love Him . . . that you really do appreciate this greatness and the multitude of His benefits to you . . . that you would like to give Him the whole universe and even all heaven itself in return. &nbsp;Tell Him that you are only a poor little creature, so poor that you must content yourself with offering Him your littleness and your poverty. &nbsp;Then gather together all the bits of goodness that you can find in your heart and in your everyday life and assure Him that you are bringing them all to Him in thanksgiving. &nbsp;Tell Him that you give Him everything that you love, that you desire, that you fear . . . all that you do at home . . . your daily work and the drudgery of daily tasks . . . your bitter disappointments and those painful misunderstandings . . . your little sacrifices and humiliations . . . all the trials and troubles of life . . . the violence you must do to yourself . . . the inconveniences and sufferings of sickness . . . the deprivations of poverty . . . in short, everything that occupies your mind and heart, everything that causes you joy or sorrow, satisfaction or misgiving. &nbsp;Offer everything to Christ your Savior in gratitude for what He has given to you.<br /><br />Perhaps a thanksgiving such as this seems too small and insignificant to you. &nbsp;It would no doubt be quite insignificant and inadequate to men who have no esteem or regard for anything except earthly gold . . . and the incense of the dust and ashes of the earth . . . &nbsp;But if you offer your poor little tokens of love to Jesus, they will be changed into heavenly gold worthy of being formed into a diadem to crown His kingly brow . . . and your humiliations will be transformed into sweet smelling incense worthy of being burned in the censers of the angels before the very throne of God . . . whereas your sufferings will be changed into myrrh that will preserve from all taint of corruption your faith, your hope and your charity.<br /><br />Divine Savior, I beg of You and I beseech You by Your infinite love for my poor soul - fill my heart with that spirit of gratitude which fills Your own towards Your heavenly Father when You instituted the Blessed Sacrament. &nbsp;Let my heart be wholly imbued with this gratitude as often as I think of You, speak of You, or receive You in Holy Communion. &nbsp;And when the sacred Host rests upon my tongue, - O teach that tongue to speak words of thanks such as are due to You . . .<br /><br />For it is truly meet and just, right and salutary, to render due thanks to the Lord our God.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>Eucharistic Whisperings</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">Rt. Rev. Msgr. Guglielmo Reyna</span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-70034487034981139532018-04-10T16:20:00.002-04:002018-04-10T16:20:46.756-04:00A Eucharistic Spirit of Sacrifice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_NRDrfdgmR8/Ws0R6CJEO5I/AAAAAAAC40U/bKwOiO1Hvokfo5ZGesjKec9wck_fdkmiQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_3850.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="913" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_NRDrfdgmR8/Ws0R6CJEO5I/AAAAAAAC40U/bKwOiO1Hvokfo5ZGesjKec9wck_fdkmiQCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_3850.jpg" width="419" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>You may firmly believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, adore His Eucharistic face, but do you remember that with&nbsp;Him in the Blessed Sacrament is His spirit of sacrifice - that this sacrifice is communicated to your soul each time you receive Him? &nbsp;Jesus your Sacrifice lives in you and so ought not His spirit of sacrifice also be yours? &nbsp;You must be a lover of mortification, self-denial and penance and these things must shape your life. &nbsp;</i></span></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span style="color: #660000;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>If your Communions are barren of fruit, your spiritual maternity will likewise bear no fruit of either holiness for yourself or healing for the priests for whom you pray. &nbsp;If your Beloved embraces the Cross for you,&nbsp;mustn't you embrace every cross willingly and joyfully that comes to you. &nbsp;How can you be averse to the very thing that has brought about your salvation, the very outpouring of love upon which you are now nourished? &nbsp;In the most intimate way you receive the Lord in Communion, but for you the roads to Gethsemane and Calvary remain unfamiliar. &nbsp;You so readily welcome Him into your hearts, yet hold no desire to receive His spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;"</i></span></span><i><span style="color: #660000;">Only a little while ago your body was a sanctuary of God Himself! . . . and now you are in eager pursuit of all kinds of pleasures, worldly distractions, and sensual gratification; or, if you are not actually seeking them, you are at least making mental resolves to do your best to avoid every mortification, every humiliation, to keep as far away from them as possible . . . Jesus, all aglow with the spirit of mortification, has entered into your heart . . . and you?"</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Do not fear suffering Daughters. &nbsp;Your Beloved desires to give you this gift - His spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;Even if you have so often left Him on Calvary's dismal heights, He waits to bind you more closely to Himself. &nbsp;He will transform your lives by the grace of participation in His sufferings. &nbsp;He will teach you how to suffer as a Christian. &nbsp;"Your Beloved will sweeten all sacrifices for you when your spirit gropes blindly in the darkness of this mystery." &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>I am so accustomed to pronouncing the holy name of Jesus that I fear I do not sufficiently realize the mighty significance of that sweet name. &nbsp;It means Savior - and, oh, what it cost Him to save us! &nbsp;When I hear the music of that name in which alone men can be saved I must think, not only of Jesus, but also of His perfections. &nbsp;I firmly believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament - it is true; but I may not forget that with Him in the Blessed Sacrament - inseparably one with Him - are His wisdom, His omnipotence, His beauty ever ancient and ever new - all His adorable perfections, in short . . . but more than all others, if that be possible, His spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;Yes; this perfection is there in a special way; and in a special way it is communicated to my soul each time I receive Holy Communion.<br /><br />From this something important follows: Jesus, my Sacrifice, lives in me. &nbsp;In Holy Communion I become one with Him. &nbsp;Ought not, then, His spirit of sacrifice to be also mine? &nbsp;Ought I not be a lover of mortification, self-denial, self-sacrifice, penance? &nbsp;Surely, it ought to implant deep in my soul a spirit of sacrifice, a spiritual understanding of its value, a longing to shape my life according to its dictates . . . I mean the reception of that Body, torn, bleeding, mangled, and crucified for love of me . . . of that Blood which flowed in crimson streams in the scourging at the pillar, in the crowning with thorns, in the nailing to the cross, and in the agonizing three hours spent thereon.<br /><br />But what am I in reality? &nbsp; Am I a lover of mortification? of self-sacrifice? of the cross? &nbsp;Do I actually find pleasure in submissive sufferings?<br /><br />I wonder why my Communions seem to be so barren of spiritual fruits. &nbsp;Why is it that, in spit of receiving my Jesus, I afterwards have the same aversion to suffering as I had before, the same love of personal comfort, the same desire to cater to the pleasures of sense? . . . Why is it? . . . &nbsp;Surely,, when Jesus, the Model of mortification, enters into my soul, He must leave within it some of His spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;Then, why, O why, am I the same after Holy Communion as before? . . . Why am I then still averse to each and every sacrifice?<br /><br />Oh I am all ashamed! &nbsp;I have been going to Holy Communion for so many years . . . and yet the roads that lead to Gethsemane and to Golgotha are still so unfamiliar to me. &nbsp;My Jesus is God, I know; and yet to me He is a God that has not suffered. &nbsp;He is Beauty itself; and yet Beauty that was never disfigured, that was not struck in the face, that was not spit upon. &nbsp;He is eternal Wisdom; and yet not Wisdom that was dressed in the purple garment of mockery and derided as the king of fools. &nbsp;He is Omnipotence; and yet Omnipotence that was never bound with the degrading chains of a malefactor. &nbsp;He is Goodness itself; and yet Goodness that was never loaded with shameless ingratitude. &nbsp;He is Life itself; and yet Life that never drank to the dregs the bitter chalice of death. &nbsp;He is Jesus; and yet not the cheerful Giver of Self in countless sacrifices . . . Is that what the Savior is to me? . . . Oh, I am so ashamed!<br /><br />Does not this prove that Jesus is only partly known to me, only half understood? . . . . How, then, can my heart be so prepared for His coming as He wishes it to be? &nbsp;. . . I invite Him to enter under my roof, to come to me . . . I hold the door of my heart wide open . . . I long and pray and plead that He may fill me quite with all His perfections . . . . But I make no preparation whatever for the reception of His spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;And thus - maybe without thinking - I myself place bounds to His generosity in the distribution of His gifts. &nbsp;And Jesus, Who knows no bounds when He would enrich us with His treasures, passes through my heart and is sad - sad because He can leave behind only a few little signs of His burning love for me.<br /><br />Ah! this is the explanation of my continued spiritual poverty . . . Now I know why I am still but the merest novice in the way of perfection.<br /><br />It is true enough that I have often gone to Holy Communion . . .but where are my sacrifices, my acts of self-denial?<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5YsYSC1GFf4/WszKOrbnNTI/AAAAAAAC4y8/S0QS-BPj-HsZw_8QqHK_yl39mti5wSAhACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_3824.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="323" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5YsYSC1GFf4/WszKOrbnNTI/AAAAAAAC4y8/S0QS-BPj-HsZw_8QqHK_yl39mti5wSAhACEwYBhgL/s400/IMG_3824.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />My heart, as it were, is still warm from divine contact with the Precious Blood that I have just received in Holy Communion . . . and yet, already now I feel within me the promptings of self-love, contempt of others, anger, bitterness . . . And why? &nbsp;All because of a mere nothing! &nbsp;. . . &nbsp;because of a slight difference in opinion, a little contradiction, a petty humiliation. &nbsp;In a certain sense my lips are still purpled with the Blood of my Savior . . . .and I am already beginning to murmur and complain. &nbsp;Why is this? &nbsp;Merely because a tiny little cross has been placed upon my shoulder. &nbsp;My eyes are still well-nigh dazed by the snow-white purity of the Sacred Host, and I already look down upon others with pride and disdain . . . and that only because they displeased me a little or simply because I cannot tolerate them.<br /><br />Only a little while ago my body was a sanctuary of God Himself! . . . and now I am in eager pursuit of all kinds of pleasures, worldly distractions, and sensual gratification; or, if I am not actually seeking them, I am at least making mental resolves to do my best to avoid every mortification, every humiliation, to keep as far away from them as possible . . . Jesus, all aglow with the spirit of mortification, has entered into my heart . . . and I? . . . .I become impatient at the least discomfort, at the least suspicion of unfair treatment . . . The very thought that I might fall sick makes me feel uneasy . . . &nbsp;I tremble at the mere imagination of death.<br /><br /><br />How different things would be if I only remembered that Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Lover of mortification! &nbsp;To many souls sacrifice, self-denial, has become a real necessity, their joy and their glory. &nbsp;I see them; admire them for it; but that is all. &nbsp;Why do I not seek the reasons for their supernatural likings? &nbsp;Why do I not search for the source of this their spiritual beauty? &nbsp;Any why do I not try to find out in what school they were so well trained? &nbsp;Of a truth, if I really had at heart the acquisition of that spirit of sacrifice which I admire so much to others, I would straightaway change my method in the reception of Holy Communion . . . .I would approach my Jesus with a generous heart . . . I would come with quite a different disposition to nourish my heart with a Body that was tormented and crucified for me, to quench the thirst of my soul with the Blood that was spilled for me at the hands of heartless executioners. &nbsp;Then, indeed, would I be most satisfied and happy to receive my Jesus, even were He to let me feel the burning sharpness of the thorns and nails . . . .and the piercing point of the lance. &nbsp;Then would I at once make Him the sole and supreme Lord and Master of my entire being and would give Him the full right to dispose of my faculties at His good pleasure, especially of the power that enables me to make sacrifices and to suffer . . . .Yes, to my shame I say it, I am always too mean and stingy towards my Savior. &nbsp;And that is why the generous Lover of sacrifice has been less generous to me . . . &nbsp;Suffering has always frightened me so! . . . And it is not my dearest Savior's way to frighten souls . . . &nbsp;.<br /><br />Sweetest Jesus, living Sacrifice of Love, too late have I known You! &nbsp;In spite of my many Communions and my visits to the Blessed Sacrament, I do not yet understand the Holy Eucharist as I ought. &nbsp;No; I have never realized how ardently You desire to give to the soul, together with Your own divine Self, Your spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;I have too often forgotten that the Blessed Sacrament is the living memorial of Your bitter passion and death. &nbsp;I tried to receive You most devoutly, it is true; I tried to love You above all things; but deep down in my heart I cherished a hidden aversion to all suffering. &nbsp;I sought You in that beautiful large upper room where You instituted the Blessed Sacrament; and all the while You were waiting for me on Calvary's dismal heights! . . . .Yes; that is where You were and where You so patiently waited for me in order to bind me more closely to Yourself with the bonds of suffering . . . .But I never had the courage to flow in those blood stained footsteps.<br /><br />But now You have conquered, my Savior. &nbsp;No matter how painful it may be to my weakness, I lay bare my heart to You . . . And this is my prayer: O Jesus, give me the grace to make sacrifices for You! &nbsp;Let me esteem it a rare privilege to do so. &nbsp;Come, O ever living Sacrifice, Lamb of God, immolated on our altars from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof . . . come, transform my life through the grace of participation in Your sufferings. &nbsp;Speak to my heart and convince me of the necessity of penance for the many sins by which I have stained my soul and made my life miserable. Teach me to suffer as a Christian, to suffer and not complain. &nbsp;Teach me to subject all the sense of my body, all the powers of my soul, to the dominion of the cross. &nbsp;Sweeten all sacrifices for me when my spirit gropes blindly in the darkness of this mystery . . . when my heart would grow hard and rebellious in the midst of tribulations . . . when my self-love rebels under the weight of humiliations . . . when my body is consumed by wasting illness.<br /><br />Oh, come! &nbsp;Oh, would that I could at length learn from You to preserve peace of heart in spite of all contradictions, to remain faithful in Your service despite the injustices of the world . . . and the deprivations of poverty . . . and abandonment by friends . . . and in the midst of the thorns of community life . . . and in the difficulties of obedience . . . and in the cruel assaults of calumny . . . despite each and all of the many trials that Your love could send me for the purification of my soul.<br /><br />Come, my Jesus, unite me most intimately with You. &nbsp;As two pieces of wax melted together are one, so may I from now on be one with You that both of us may be animated by one and the same spirit of sacrifice. &nbsp;Utterly destroy within me every sinful earthly love, every inordinate attachment to myself and to whatever may displease You. &nbsp;You die for my sins, dearest Savior; for my sins you offered the mighty Sacrifice of the Cross, continually renewed in the Sacrifice of the Mass.<br /><br />"O Thou memorial of Our Lord's own dying," Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, how I pray that through the power of Your love I may ever be inflamed with the Eucharistic spirit of sacrifice!<br /><br /><u>Eucharistic Whisperings Vol. 6</u><br />Rt. Rev. Msgr. Guglielmo Reyna<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-46488474190279823732018-03-13T08:29:00.001-04:002018-03-13T08:29:52.423-04:00Prepare yourself for battle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9M7llsf6ARE/Wqe_G_w8_iI/AAAAAAAC2D0/kuUnHxhNxekRYnfwHmCcPwiJCT0KZnZGACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-4.23.07-PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="490" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9M7llsf6ARE/Wqe_G_w8_iI/AAAAAAAC2D0/kuUnHxhNxekRYnfwHmCcPwiJCT0KZnZGACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-4.23.07-PM.png" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Your desire for intimacy with the Lord must be accompanied by the desire for virtue and the hatred of sin. &nbsp;You must have clarity of vision when it comes to the nature of not only the spiritual battle that all Christians are called to in this regard, but the intensity of the struggle for those so deeply&nbsp;committed and consecrated to prayer. &nbsp;The moment&nbsp;the commitment to adoration and to&nbsp;pray for priests is made Hell will unleash its forces against you - assailing you in all manner of ways. Habits of mind and behavior will conspire against you to resist the changes that you have resolved to make. &nbsp;Have no illusions Daughters - the Evil One will seek to get his clutches on you and "leave nothing undone to ruin you."</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Yet you must not give yourselves over to discouragement. &nbsp;Keep before your mind always the love and life that your Lord promises. &nbsp;Where sin abounds grace abounds all the more and where evil is present there also is God and His angels and saints. &nbsp;Against the habit of mind and behavior that would lead to sin you have the habit of virtue strengthened by grace. &nbsp;Let the pure and ineffable joys of the Holy Spirit spur you on to victory.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">You will no sooner have resolved to give yourself to God than Hell will send out its forces against you. The flesh, corrupted from its birth by the poison of the serpent, will assail you with its insatiable desires and alluring pleasures. Evil habits as strong as nature itself will fiercely resist this change of life and exaggerate the difficulties which you will encounter.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">To turn a river from its course is hardly more laborious than to change a life confirmed by inveterate habits. The world, as powerful as it is cruel, will wage a fierce war against you. Armed with its pleasures and bad examples, it will hasten to compass your downfall. At one time it will seek to captivate your heart with its pomps and vanities. At another time it will strive to entangle you in the net of its ways and maxims. Again it will boldly attack you with ridicule, raillery, and persecution. The devil himself, the arch-deceiver, will renew his warfare and turn all his forces against you. Enraged at your desertion from his party, he will leave nothing undone to ruin you. . . &nbsp;.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">That you may not be discouraged, bear in mind that the prize for which you are striving is worth more than all you can ever give to purchase it. Remember that you have powerful defenders ever near you. Against the assaults of corrupt nature you have God's grace. Against the snares of the devil you have the almighty power of God. Against the allurements of evil habits you have the force of good habits confirmed by grace. Against a multitude of evil spirits you have numberless angels of light. Against the bad example and persecutions of the world you have the good example and strengthening exhortations of the saints. Against the sinful pleasures and vain joys of the world you have the pure joys and ineffable consolations of the Holy Ghost.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Venerable Louis of Granada.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>The Sinner's Guide</u> (p. 183).</span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-90335444594389666792018-02-08T10:48:00.000-05:002018-02-08T10:48:01.553-05:00Let not your heart be troubled<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-txSiRudbnB0/UrNxS1zAuBI/AAAAAAAAjqk/Dhu7mZfti7IqrCjIrTaGEng60Hd5RtwAgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/tumblr_mwirkrKPrP1sjsvpbo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-txSiRudbnB0/UrNxS1zAuBI/AAAAAAAAjqk/Dhu7mZfti7IqrCjIrTaGEng60Hd5RtwAgCPcBGAYYCw/s640/tumblr_mwirkrKPrP1sjsvpbo1_500.jpg" width="520" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.</b></i></span>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;(<i style="font-family: inherit;"><b>John 14: 1)</b></i><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">You must have no anxiety at all and let nothing disturb your interior quiet. &nbsp;Do not try to control, manage or manipulate the realities of your daily life. &nbsp;Rather, entrust yourself to the Providence of God. &nbsp;You will be put to the test; if only to lead you to let go of the things that you tend to prefer more than His love. &nbsp;Know that the Lord sees all of your needs more clearly than you do and there will be many&nbsp;</i><i>occasions when you discover that your plans are foreign to His. You press to have your own designs fulfilled prematurely rather than according to God's mind and will. &nbsp;</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The call you have received from God is beautifully simple - to adore Him; but you seek to fill your days and nights with things and activities that bring you no closer to fulfilling His designs for you. &nbsp;You must give <u>first</u> place to adoration and let the Lord accomplish what He desires in your life and the life of others.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Consecrate yourself to the time of prayer in the "rule" the Lord has given you. &nbsp;This is how you cling to God and through this He can accomplish the&nbsp;impossible in you. &nbsp;Place the things that weigh upon you the most or cause you the greatest anxiety in His hands, especially those&nbsp;individuals who cause you the greatest distress. &nbsp;Otherwise work quietly in His presence through the day until you return to Him once again in prayer. &nbsp;He will "order all things mightily and sweetly."</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A troubled heart is always an indication of one’s lack of trust in Me. Trouble, interior disquiet, comes from wanting to control and manage the things that are better left to My Father’s providence. At every moment, I provide you with occasions to trust Me and to abandon to Me the things that you would prefer to see other than they are. Whenever you come up against something that contradicts your plans or fails to meet your expectations, give that thing, that situation, that disappointment to Me. Entrust it to My Heart, and then relinquish all worry over it.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I am not distant from you nor am I removed from your life and all that makes up your days. Not a hair falls from your head without My Father permitting it. Make frequent acts of trust and abandonment. Let go of the things that you cling to most tightly. Come to Me with empty hands. Hold on to nothing, not even to your own plans and desires for good things. If the things that you want for yourself are good, know, beyond any doubt, that the things I want for you are infinitely better.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you find something difficult, or beyond your strength, ask Me to do it in you or even to leave it undone as I see fit. There are things that you would want to do that are alien to My plans, and there are things that I would have you do that you, of yourself, would never think of doing. It is your attachment to doing what you want that impedes the rapid fulfilment of My perfect designs for you and for this place.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I called you here to adore Me. You have found other things to fill your days and your nights, but none of these will advance My plans, nor will they contribute to the unfolding of what My Heart has conceived for you. Give the first place to the adoration that I have asked of you, and still ask of you, and you will see wonders.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The doing must be Mine. Yours it is to trust Me, to wait upon Me, to abide close to My Heart like the beloved disciple. When you are to do something that springs from My plan for you, you will find that thing easy to do, for I will give you light and strength and perseverance in the doing of it.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Consecrate to Me the hours of prayer that I have asked of you. Follow your Rule, and all else will fall into place. When you are close to Me in the Sacrament of My love, you are working with Me, and I am working in you, and this in a way that is divinely efficacious and supernaturally fruitful. When the time to end your adoration comes, take leave of Me with the same freedom and joy with which you came into My presence. By following your Rule, you do not forsake Me; you cleave to Me and allow Me to speak, to act, to do in you things that would otherwise be impossible for you.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The things that weigh upon you most heavily, the things that cause you the most anxiety and distress, are the very things that I want you to abandon to Me. When a particular people become for you a cause of worry and distress, give them to Me and represent them before My Eucharistic Face. You will see changes in them that only My grace can produce. When something becomes a cause of anguish, or makes you fearful, or robs your heart of peace, give that thing to Me immediately, and once you have given it to Me, think of it no more. I order all things mightily and sweetly. Carry out your duties with freedom and simplicity. Do one thing after another. Give all things to Me upon beginning them, and offer all things to Me upon completing them. Work quietly in My presence, and then return to My presence here in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar to find rest for your soul and to console My Heart with your friendship.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u>In Sinu Jesu</u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u>The Journal of a Priest at Prayer</u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u><br /></u></span></div>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-85389006546336546222018-02-07T17:02:00.001-05:002018-02-07T17:23:23.240-05:00sink into the ground of adoration <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C_3cxNfg2gg/WntvHiVVrhI/AAAAAAACv18/YeYbTgMYBKEw_XQp636m3PK39JzaHo8jACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_2186.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="460" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C_3cxNfg2gg/WntvHiVVrhI/AAAAAAACv18/YeYbTgMYBKEw_XQp636m3PK39JzaHo8jACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_2186.JPG" width="368" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Jesus answered them, saying: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal. If any man minister to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister be. If any man minister to me, him will my Father honour.” John 12: 23–26&nbsp;</span></blockquote><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>Are you willing to follow the Lord into the hiddenness of prayer; allowing yourself to sink into the darkness of an absolute faith? &nbsp;More, are you willing to completely die to self and to lose yourself in adoration? &nbsp;For you must let go of all that the senses cling to and that to which reason and understanding hold fast for security; forgoing what even seems to be soundness and stability of mind. &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">For it is only in imitation of your Beloved, by allowing yourself to be buried in the rich ground of faith, by dying to any sense of yourself outside of Him, will you bear much fruit. Can you let yourself consent to disappear, to become what you contemplate, to be forsaken by all and wrapped in silence? &nbsp;It is only then that you will enter into the Silence that is Life and the glory that is not of this world.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a very real sense in which the prayer of adoration is a loss of one’s life. It is a kind of falling into the ground to die. Remember this when you come to adore Me. Look at the Sacred Host and see Me, who am the grain of wheat fallen into the ground and risen to life, and become the food of a vast multitude of souls, and this until the end of time. The grain of wheat that I was has become the Host that I am.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">When you adore Me, forgetting yourself and forsaking all things for Me, you imitate Me, for adoration is a kind of death. It is a passing out of everything that solicits the senses and a cleaving to Me alone in the bright darkness of faith. So it will be in the hour of your death.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The more deeply you sink into adoration, the more deeply are you planted in the earth, there to die, and there to sprout, and finally to bring forth much fruit.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBXXPE3jJOo/VK7PTp3iYOI/AAAAAAABC-Y/6Y8pt-3gtFAya-xYd72Qak0MsnmvHR08QCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/HH-nun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="575" height="282" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OBXXPE3jJOo/VK7PTp3iYOI/AAAAAAABC-Y/6Y8pt-3gtFAya-xYd72Qak0MsnmvHR08QCPcBGAYYCw/s320/HH-nun.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sink into the ground of adoration. Consent to disappear, to forsake appearances, and to die. Enter into the silence of the Host. Become by grace what you contemplate in faith. Here, I am hidden, silent, and forsaken by all, save a very few whom I have chosen to enter into My hiddenness, My silence, and My solitude. If you would serve Me, follow Me into My Eucharistic state. Lose all that the world counts as something and become with Me something that the world counts as nothing.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Where I am, there also shall my servant be.” &nbsp;You are here because I am here and was here before you. Adoration is the humblest and, at the same time, the most fruitful expression of service. To adore Me is to serve Me, and “if anyone serve Me, my Father will honour him.” &nbsp;When you adore Me, you serve Me, and in serving Me, you are united to Me who hide Myself, and give Myself, and reveal Myself in this Sacrament. This is the life of adoration: it is the mystery of the grain of wheat buried and hidden in the darkness of the earth. It is the promise of life in abundance and a foretaste of the face-to-face vision that awaits you in glory.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u>In Sinu Jesu</u></span><br /><u><span style="color: #660000;">A Journal of a Priest at Prayer</span></u><br /><u><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></u><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><u><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></u><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-39323082863557914162018-01-31T17:29:00.003-05:002018-01-31T17:29:54.223-05:00Know what you pray for Daughters!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DU7sHolhMX8/WnIzvqNfXOI/AAAAAAACt0U/SjPtrTs5hJoOnPxOZHqVAqkhtF-MCaMCQCLcBGAs/s1600/27164622_1849971945037125_4116960069640550727_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DU7sHolhMX8/WnIzvqNfXOI/AAAAAAACt0U/SjPtrTs5hJoOnPxOZHqVAqkhtF-MCaMCQCLcBGAs/s640/27164622_1849971945037125_4116960069640550727_o.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6px;"><div style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>You must understand well what it is that you pray for in order that you give yourself over fully to the life of Adoration and Reparation. &nbsp;You must grasp in a way that even few priests do the significance of their calling and the magnitude of their identity. &nbsp;Not only has the priesthood been stripped of its dignity in recent years, dimming the Face of Christ the Eternal Priest, but the impact of this on the life of the Church and the loss for the faithful has been incalculable. &nbsp;The reflections below from <u>In Sinu Jesu</u>&nbsp;capture not only the beauty of the priesthood and the gift that it is for the Church but also the commitment and grace that is needed for men to be conformed to Christ in every way. &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Contrary to the attempts of the world to diminish the priesthood and make it invisible or absent altogether, the priest must give his whole self to God and allow himself to be shaped as God wills. &nbsp;He must chose definitively to turn away from the vanities of the world and have eyes only for Christ and the holiness to which He has called Him. &nbsp;A priest must live for the Blessed Sacrament as Christ keeps Himself present for us always in the Tabernacle. &nbsp;A priest must truly put on the mind of Christ and live in complete docility to the Spirit of Lord in order that He might truly act and speak through him. &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>A priest is not a functionary but rather an "alter Christus", an other Christ, in and through whom the Lord continues to speak to and heal His people. &nbsp;He makes Christ present to others not in an abstract way but through his touching souls and comforting them. &nbsp;The recent scandals may make many priests shrink back from making themselves so radically present to others, from loving them, and so build the walls high to protect themselves. &nbsp;Yet they must not hide themselves and their identity from others but make themselves visible and vulnerable. &nbsp;As Spiritual Mothers, you are poised to understand the importance of and the world's need of true fathers - fathers who heal the wounds of abuse and neglect and provide souls in their care with love, comfort, direction, guidance and courage. &nbsp;The absence of true fathers has left so many with a distorted view of God and the world. And so you, Daughters, must bear priests in your hearts as you come before the Lord in Adoration and through your asceticism and sacrifices until through God's mercy the souls of true spiritual fathers are reborn.</i></span><br /><br /><div style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leave aside the things that distract you from Me. I am the one thing necessary to you in this life. Save your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your hands, and your heart, your whole being for Me, and I will unite you to Myself. Close your eyes to vanities, and your ears to flattery and deceit. Open your mouth to praise Me, to sing My glory, to speak of Me, and to speak good things to your neighbour. Keep yourself for Me, as I keep Myself for you in the Sacrament of My love.&nbsp;</span></div></div><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Know<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">&nbsp;that I wait for you. There is a consolation that only you can give Me. It is your friendship that My Heart desires, and this friendship of yours cannot be replaced by any other. You are Mine and I am yours. Abide in Me and I will abide in you, speaking through you, and touching souls through your words.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Allow Me to be the physician of souls and bodies through you. I want to live in you and pursue on earth all of those things that I did out of love and compassion when I walked among men in My flesh. You are My flesh now, and you are My presence in the world. It is through you that I make Myself visible to men. It is through you that I will speak to them, and comfort them, and heal them, and draw them to My Father in the Holy Spirit.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is nothing that I will not do for souls through My priests. Let them be visible and present in the world that needs them and, without knowing it, seeks them and waits for a word from them: a word of life, a word of hope, a word of compassion, a word of forgiveness. Let My priests be visible, not in order to make themselves seen and admired by men, but in order to make Me seen, and known, and loved in them and through them.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The world is looking for fathers, and in My priests I have given souls the fathers whom they need. There are false fathers who would abuse souls and lead them along, and exercise seduction and power over them. These are not the fathers whom I am sending into the world. The fathers whom I send to souls are men in My own image and likeness: humble, meek, self-sacrificing, tender, and strong. I will give to these fathers, chosen and sent out by Me, a wisdom and a courage that the enemies of My Cross will not be able to confound.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let My priests forsake all selfishness and worldly aggrandisement, and so become fathers to souls in need of love, comfort, direction, guidance, and courage. It is through My priests—fathers in whom the tenderness and mercy of My own Father will be revealed to His children in this valley of tears—that the world will be healed of the sufferings inflicted upon it by the absence of true fathers. Let My priests be fathers! Let them beg Me for the grace of spiritual fatherhood, and I will give it to them in abundance.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><div style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Your prayers, Daughters, must be made with the clarity and courage of the Mother of our Lord; for you must desire that the hearts of the priests you support be shaped by the same self-emptying love of Christ. &nbsp;In other words, you must pray that they be willing and able to become both priest and victim. &nbsp;You must pray that they abandon themselves so completely to the embrace of Christ that they stretch themselves out with Him on the Cross. &nbsp;They must bear within their bodies the marks of the Christ crucified. &nbsp;In offering the Sacrifice of the Mass, they must allow the immolation of the Lamb to be renewed in their bodies and souls&nbsp;each day. &nbsp;It is for this reason that they are ordained - to become living icons of the Christ crucified. &nbsp;</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c9ybzDI0Ke4/WnI0HMPvx2I/AAAAAAACt04/KZH6H1sIRwkeLD_0hICftUf3OYGyxALNgCLcBGAs/s1600/27459857_1848794175154902_2207737181515162543_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="540" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c9ybzDI0Ke4/WnI0HMPvx2I/AAAAAAACt04/KZH6H1sIRwkeLD_0hICftUf3OYGyxALNgCLcBGAs/s640/27459857_1848794175154902_2207737181515162543_n.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #1d2129; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is normal that a priest be stigmatised; what is not normal, in fact, is that he not be. The real union with the Crucified each day at the altar should leave the traces of His holy wounds in his hands, in his feet, and in his heart. In offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the priest is totally assimilated to Jesus crucified. This the Father sees; this the angels see; it is only men who do not see it.&nbsp;</span></div><div style="color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The depth of the impression of the wounds of Jesus in the heart and i<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">n the soul of the priest is proportionate to his degree of abandonment to the embrace of Jesus, who desires only to unite him to Himself. In some, the interior impression is so strong that it manifests itself even in the flesh of the priest; in others, the identification with the Crucified remains all interior and hidden; in still others, it is barely sketched in the soul of the priest, because he rebels against the idea of letting himself be crucified with Christ, and wants to keep his life for himself.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">To ascend to the altar to offer there the Holy Sacrifice is already to offer oneself to the piercing of the nails and of the lance, and to the crown of thorns. To offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is already to risk the secret interior stigmatisation that the Father sees, who sees in secret, and the angels who are admitted to contemplate the immolation of the Lamb renewed in the body and in the soul of a man.&nbsp;</div><div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">To offer oneself to the interior stigmatisation is entirely in the logic of priestly ordination. In some men, God permits it to be manifested visibly, with outpourings of blood. In others, the same mystery is lived in secret, without any outward manifestation. It remains that every priest is chosen to bear the marks of the Passion of Christ, and to be the living icon of His immolation each day upon the altar.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br /></div></span></div></div>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-63892126265870119762017-11-19T15:47:00.001-05:002017-11-19T15:47:09.908-05:00to bear the wounds of Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NtwVs_suZso/WhHiBYU2IOI/AAAAAAACg0Y/qZbMcVz24kkvCEwkHJpYAZn3Y00ViS3YgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0501.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="424" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NtwVs_suZso/WhHiBYU2IOI/AAAAAAACg0Y/qZbMcVz24kkvCEwkHJpYAZn3Y00ViS3YgCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_0501.JPG" width="452" /></span></a></div><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">To make reparation is to bear the wounds of Love, to willingly and freely make yourself vulnerable to the word God speaks to you in the silence of prayer. &nbsp;You must approach Him not only with the hope of being consoled but to console. &nbsp;</i><i>You</i><i style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;must seek not only the strength, grace and forgiveness that flows from your Beloved's wounds but unite yourself so completely to Him so as to accept all that was inflicted upon Him in His most bitter Passion as your own. &nbsp;Let yourself be made holy in the holocaust of divine love so that the world may be filled with the radiance of His Face and the priesthood would be healed by the love of His own Heart.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">This you must do humbly and without the observation of others. &nbsp;Enter, as your patron St. Philip Neri tells you, into His open side; so deeply as to never find your way from this&nbsp;</i><i>hidden sanctuary. &nbsp;There, in each of His wounds, you will find refuge from all evil. &nbsp;D</i></span><i><span style="color: #660000;">rink deeply of the springs of love that will refresh and delight your souls.</span></i><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I who am here before you, I am the Word. No book, however beautifully written, can speak to your heart as I do, for I am eternal Wisdom, infinite Love, and uncreated Beauty in dialogue with your soul. My words are not like the words of men, My words surpass even the words of My saints, though I often speak through them and continue to touch souls through their writings. My words are like arrows of fire shot into the heart and wounding it so as to inflame it and heal it with divine love. Make yourself vulnerable to My words. Allow Me to speak to you in such a way as to wound you with the piercing of divine love. When you come before Me and wait upon Me in silence, you are, in effect, allowing Me, when I choose and in the way I choose, to wound you with an interior word and to set you on fire with a communication of divine love. Expect Me, then, to speak to you, to console you, and to enlighten you, but also to wound you. &nbsp;Unless I wound you in this way, you will be incapable of withstanding the attacks of the enemy and of bearing witness to Me in the midst of darkness and tribulation. In the spiritual battle that is coming, only those wounded by Me will emerge victorious. This is why I call all My priests to seek and to accept the healing wounds of My love. Those who keep watch on behalf of My priests before My Eucharistic Face will be among the first to be so wounded. I have called you to adoration because I desire to wound you not once, but again and again, until your whole being is wounded, and so purified and set ablaze with the fire of My love. Would that your soul were wounded as many times as I was wounded in My body for love of you in the combat of My most bitter Passion! Allow Me, then, to pierce you through and through until, wounded by divine love, you are wholly sanctified and made fit for My purposes and designs. This I desire not only for you, but for all My priests. I would wound each one again and again with My burning love so as to purify the whole priestly order in My beloved Church, and present it to the eyes of the world as a victimal priesthood made holy in the holocaust of divine love. Until My bishops and My priests allow Me to wound them with the fiery arrows of My divine love, their own wounds— wounds of sin—will continue to fester and to spread a filthy infection of corruption and of impurity in the Church. Let each one of you beg Me to wound her, for in wounding you, I will heal My beloved priests, and in healing them, I will sanctify them, and in sanctifying them, I will offer glory to My Father and fill the world with the radiance of My own Face and the love of My own Heart.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-32NAFYyef7g/WhHiCKyX47I/AAAAAAACg0k/o7T6_pJrbAEcrPgvbXRI-s3lTLOzerUzACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="501" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-32NAFYyef7g/WhHiCKyX47I/AAAAAAACg0k/o7T6_pJrbAEcrPgvbXRI-s3lTLOzerUzACLcBGAs/s400/IMG_0499.JPG" width="302" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">This, in truth, is who you are: a sinner held fast in the embrace of My divine friendship. When I withdraw this grace of conversation with Me for a time, it is so that you will not mistake it for the product of your own imaginings, and also so that you will not grow accustomed to My words and so, little by little, fail to take them to heart and to treasure them. I speak to you so that you might share My words when the occasion arises to do so. Share My words humbly, with no thought for yourself. Remain hidden in Me: I will hide you from the observations of men in the secret of My Face, I will prepare for you a secret place deep within the sanctuary of My pierced side. &nbsp;There you can go to remain hidden and silent, sharing My words freely and without the fear of being noticed or praised. Ask Me to hide you in My wounds. There is a place for you in each of My five wounds; each of them represents a refuge against the temptations that threaten you, and the traps set by the devil, who would ensnare you and rejoice to see you fall. The wound in My right hand is your refuge from sins of disobedience and self-will. Take refuge there when you are tempted to take the path that is easy and broad. The wound in My left hand is your refuge from sins of selfishness, from directing all things to yourself, and grasping the attention of others by seeking to take to yourself what your right hand has given Me. The wound in My right foot is your refuge from sins of inconstancy. Take refuge there when you are tempted to be inconsistent, and when you waver in your resolutions to love Me above all things, and to place Me first in your affections and in your desires. The wound in My left foot is your refuge against sins of sloth and of spiritual lethargy. Take refuge there when you are tempted to give up the struggle and to consent to despair and discouragement. Finally, the wound in My side is your refuge from every false love and every fleshly deceit promising sweetness, but giving bitterness and death instead. &nbsp;Take refuge in My pierced side when you are tempted to look for love in any creature. I have created you for My love, and My love alone can satisfy the desires of your heart. Enter, then, the wound in My side and, penetrating even into My Heart, drink deeply of the springs of love that will refresh and delight your soul and wash you in preparation for the wedding of your soul with Me, for I am the Bridegroom of your soul, your Saviour from all that would defile you, and your God who is love and mercy now and unto the ages of ages.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;"><u>In Sinu Jesu: When Heart Speaks to Heart</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;">The Journal of a Priest at Prayer&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-family: inherit;">A Benedictine Monk</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s2fSZJREv2o/WRTKqunzE3I/AAAAAAACOe8/KbXaFyHQuy03hL4usqS508QAaXygRG00wCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s2fSZJREv2o/WRTKqunzE3I/AAAAAAACOe8/KbXaFyHQuy03hL4usqS508QAaXygRG00wCPcBGAYYCw/s320/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-41756556545793535182017-10-22T11:54:00.000-04:002017-10-22T11:54:05.632-04:00When you are before Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YE2pUK9x9l4/Wey1HPfMLJI/AAAAAAACZoU/I_-UJgTRVu0_zz2Epd94_3mRTctrJCjTACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1073" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YE2pUK9x9l4/Wey1HPfMLJI/AAAAAAACZoU/I_-UJgTRVu0_zz2Epd94_3mRTctrJCjTACLcBGAs/s640/IMG_8612.JPG" width="476" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You do not yet understand the value and the meaning of what you are doing when you abide in adoration before My Eucharistic Face. &nbsp;You are participating in a divine work, in a work of grace. &nbsp;You are before Me as an empty vessel to be filled with the power and sweetness of the Holy Spirit, that souls might drink of My love and, drinking, see that My love is sweeter than any earthly delight.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You are before Me as the intercessor in whose soul the Holy Spirit is sighing with ineffable groaning and you are obtaining from My Father, through Me, all that the Father desires to give My priests in this world and in the next.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You are the reparator opening yourself to receive the love that so many others ignore, refuse, or treat with indifference, coldness, and disdain. &nbsp;By offering yourself to Me in an adoration of reparation, you console My Eucharistic Heart, which burns with love and so desires to fill souls with My tender mercy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When you are before Me, you are the privileged friends of My Heart, keeping Me company in My loneliness and allowing Me to share with you My sorrows, My grieving over sin, and My designs for a priesthood made pure and radiant with holiness.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When you are before Me, you are with Me a victim of love, handed over and bound to remain at your place before the altar with no desires or plans other than to love, to adore, to make reparation, and to represent all priests in a prayer that is simple, confident, and life-changing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When you are in adoration before My Eucharistic Face, you are not idle; you are working in a way far more efficacious than any human undertaking can be. &nbsp;This is your work and it is My work in you. &nbsp;This is a work that many will criticize and not understand. &nbsp;You are here in a divinely active collaboration with Me, who from the Sacrament of My love continue My priestly mediation before the Father on behalf of poor sinners.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Never doubt of the value of your hours of adoration. &nbsp;It is this that I have asked you to do, and I will draw from your presence in the sanctuary a great good and a superabundance of graces for My priests. &nbsp;Now, by giving Me the better part of the day, you are beginning to realize that for which I called you here, and that for which I set you aside long ago.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>O my beloved Jesus, show me&nbsp;how Thou wouldst have me spend this hour in&nbsp;Thy presence.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I leave you free. &nbsp;You need not do anything. &nbsp;You need not say anything. &nbsp;All I desire is that you should be present, focused on My presence, and allowing Me to act in your soul.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am pleased by every effort, no matter how humble or simple. &nbsp;I prefer prayers of the humble and simple heart, prayer made without presence, in faith, hope, and in charity.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Learn from My saints. &nbsp;Study them. Receive their teachings. &nbsp;Draw inspiration from their friendship with Me. &nbsp;But do not try to imitate them. &nbsp;Each of My friends arrives at union with Me by the path traced for her by the Holy Spirit. &nbsp;Even when two paths may appear similar, know that they are not identical. &nbsp;All of these paths converge in union with Me, in the light of My Face, and all of them lead to the open door of My Sacred Heart.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Yours is the way of adoration. &nbsp;I have called you to abide before My Eucharistic Face and to make it possible for others to follow that same vocation. &nbsp;Even when many souls are called to the same way of life, each soul has its secret love, a way of experiencing My friendship most intimately, that can be shared with no one else.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My love is a personal love. &nbsp;I love each soul that I have created as if that soul were the only soul in the universe, and I adapt My infinite love to the particular sensibilities and needs of that soul with all wisdom and tenderness of My divine Heart.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Trust in the path that I have opened before you and be faithful to it. &nbsp;You are the first of a family of Daughters who will grow and flourish in the radiance of My Eucharistic Face.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Allow My love to direct all things. &nbsp;Remain little and humble. &nbsp;Prefer to stay in the background, allowing Me to direct and determine the course of events and the growth of this work of Mine. &nbsp;The more faithful you are to adoring Me in the Sacrament of My love, the more will I be faithful to you in manifesting the wonders of My providence.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Your fatigue and your distractions in adoration are no impediment to My action in the depths of your soul. &nbsp;I have assure you of this before. &nbsp;Come before Me and remain before Me even when you feel that your adoration is no more than a struggle and a failure to remain attentive in love and focused on My Eucharistic Face.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here, your feelings are of no importance. &nbsp;What matters in My sight is your humility and your willingness to endure distractions, fatigue, and even sleepiness while adoring Me from the heart of your heart. &nbsp;Know that even when you feel that your adoration has been a waste of time, in My plan it is something fruitful and it is very pleasing to Me. &nbsp;I do not see things as you see them nor do I measure their value as you measure it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u>In Sinu Jesu</u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;">Journal of a priest at prayer</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-64739886198832423232017-09-22T14:35:00.000-04:002017-09-22T14:37:39.596-04:00Abide in Me, suffer in Me, love in Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ab58h212Ufg/WMh-VbiBc8I/AAAAAAACIPY/X6EJeO8KH9sxxRCtnsQAss5WKdTVhuyygCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/17352478_1484636678237322_4295291169128409701_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="606" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ab58h212Ufg/WMh-VbiBc8I/AAAAAAACIPY/X6EJeO8KH9sxxRCtnsQAss5WKdTVhuyygCPcBGAYYCw/s640/17352478_1484636678237322_4295291169128409701_n.jpg" width="404" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>&nbsp;<i style="color: #660000;">When I asked Our Lord about my physical weaknesses, my pain, and fatigue:</i><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Accept these things and offer them to the Father in union with My Passion for the sanctification of priests and the healing of those whom you have offended or wounded by your sins.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>My beloved Jesus, attach me to Thyself, even as Your Mother and Magdalene were attached to Thee.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Abide in Me, suffer in Me, love in Me, and I will use all that you do and suffer to repair the evil you have done and to bring healing and peace to those whom you have injured. &nbsp;Trust Me with your past and with its heavy burden of sin; give Me all that you have: the present moment. &nbsp;Offer the present to Me, and I will attend to repairing your past and to preparing your future. &nbsp;Your future is to be united with Me eternally in heaven by means of the same love with which you will have loved Me during these remaining years on earth.<br /><br />Do you not see how much I have been calling you to trust in Me? &nbsp;Trust is the key that opens all the treasures of My merciful and infinitely loving Heart. &nbsp;I am touched by a single act of trust in My merciful love more than a multitude of good works. &nbsp;The soul who trusts Me, by that very fact, removes the obstacles of pride and self-determination that impede my freedom of action. &nbsp;There is nothing I will not do for the soul who abandons herself to Me in a simple act of trust.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Do Thou in me and through me, O my beloved Jesus,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>all that Thou&nbsp;desires to find in me and do through me,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>so that, in spite of my miseries, my weaknesses, and even my sins,&nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>your holy priesthood may be a radiance of Thine,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>and the face of&nbsp;priests&nbsp;reflect the merciful love that ever shines&nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; on Thy Holy Face</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>for souls who trust in Thee and abandon themselves&nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; to Thy Divine action.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Will you allow Me to suffer in you, to complete in your flesh and in your heart that portion of My Passion reserved for you by My Father from all eternity? &nbsp;I will send upon you the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, so that you may be able to suffer joyfully and in the peace of a complete submission to all the designs of My Heart upon your life.<br /><br />I need your sufferings and I ask for them for the renewal of My priesthood in the Church and for the spiritual regeneration of priests weakened by sin and held in bondage to evil. &nbsp;By your submission to My Father's will and by your humble participation in My Passion, many priests will be healed and purified, and restored to holiness. &nbsp;Will you give Me your "yes"? &nbsp;Will you consent to this work of Mine in you and through you? &nbsp;Trust.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>My Jesus, how can I refuse Thee anything? &nbsp;All my trust is in Thee. &nbsp;In Thee is all my hope. &nbsp;I am all Thine, and Thy friendship is my assurance of happiness and of Thy&nbsp;unfailing grace. &nbsp;I give Thee my heartfelt "yes." &nbsp;I am all Thine, beloved Jesus: a spiritual mother for Thine own priesthood and a victim with Thee in Thy pure, holy, and spotless oblation to the Father. Amen.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Look to My Eucharistic Face and I will strengthen you in all your sufferings. &nbsp;You will suffer not as one defeated by the forces of evil, but as one already united to Me in the triumph of My resurrection. I will suffer in you, giving to everything you endure out of love for Me and for My beloved priests a value far exceeding what can be measured in human terms.<br /><br />My Heart will beat in yours and yours in Mine. &nbsp;This is the union to which I am leading you. &nbsp;This is the ultimate meaning of your passage on earth. &nbsp;I am preparing you now for an eternal union with Me in the glory of heaven. &nbsp;There you will find the home that I have prepared for you in My love for you even from before the beginning of time.<br /><br />Your sufferings will be made of weakness and weariness and dependence on others. &nbsp;I will send you physical sufferings, but I will also strengthen your heart and unite you more and more to Myself in a joy transcending all suffering and in a strength transcending every weakness. &nbsp;You will be with Me on the altar of the Cross, and your life will become to the eyes of all a continuation and prolongation of My sacrifice on Calvary. &nbsp;Thus will you be that mother in Jesus Crucified that I have chosen you to be; a mother to the souls of many priests, a mother with a heart pierced like My own Heart, and with an ever-flowing fountain of love for the healing of souls and the sanctification of My priests, my beloved priests. &nbsp;Do you accept this?<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Yes, Lord Jesus, I accept all that Thou&nbsp;proposest. &nbsp;All my trust is in Thee. &nbsp;All my confidence is in Thy Heart's friendship for me.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>I will always give you strength to adore Me, to come before My Eucharistic Face, and to sing My praises.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">adapted from&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>In Sinu Jesu</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">A Journal of a Priest at Prayer</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-80552171417214852462017-09-11T15:04:00.001-04:002017-09-11T15:05:37.137-04:00For as long as this earthly exile lasts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AFEkJ-sapvw/WbbSi57oZMI/AAAAAAACXIA/FTqf_dCK3Iw-FfH30SDGGLsiLEnyR8GsACLcBGAs/s1600/157239d103a2d2904f18cf981a008bba%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="479" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AFEkJ-sapvw/WbbSi57oZMI/AAAAAAACXIA/FTqf_dCK3Iw-FfH30SDGGLsiLEnyR8GsACLcBGAs/s640/157239d103a2d2904f18cf981a008bba%2B2.jpg" width="510" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><i style="color: #660000;">Lord, no matter how much I exhaust myself in the pursuit of even that which is good and worthy of effort, it disappears into what seems to be an empty void. &nbsp;I often experience myself and my life bereft of meaning; mentally and physically devoid of strength. &nbsp;Sacrifices once seemingly made with love now leave me bitter. &nbsp;Friendships that once buoyed me up and counsel once valued have faded and I slip into a self-imposed isolation. &nbsp;A life full of bright promise and hope has now turned grey.</i><br /><i style="color: #660000;"><br /></i>Daughter, make Me the object of all your desires and you will never be disappointed. &nbsp;Seek Me and you will find Me. &nbsp;Ask for the grace of My presence in the sanctuary of your soul and there hold conversation with Me, for I am in you, and you are in Me. &nbsp;I am your life, and apart from Me, all that this earthly life offers you is bitter and unable to satisfy your heart. &nbsp;I have created you and called you to live in My friendship and to long for Me on earth until that longing is satisfied in heaven.<br /><br />In the meantime, for as long as your earthly exile lasts, you have Me in the Sacrament of My love. &nbsp;There you have My Heart; there you can contemplate My Face; there you can hear My voice; there you can enjoy My friendship and live in My presence. &nbsp;I was no more really present to My Apostles than I am to you at this moment in the Sacrament of My love. &nbsp;Do you believe this?<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Yes, Lord, I believe. &nbsp;Help my unbelief. &nbsp;For it too has&nbsp;weakened. &nbsp;The efficacy of my time before you I doubt and at times my gaze feels empty and to no purpose. &nbsp;I would even say that my time before you is painful and any initiative lacking. &nbsp;All seems forced. &nbsp;My presence can only be an affront when my coldness meets the warmth of Your Love. &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>I will strengthen your faith in My real presence and make it so strong that the rest of your life will rest upon it as a solid rock. &nbsp;I am making you the adorer of My Eucharistic Face that I have so long desired. &nbsp;Allow Me to form you, to shape you, to purify and to illumine you in preparation for the work that I have given you to do for My priests. &nbsp;For this to happen, you have only to abide in My presence. &nbsp;The work of adoration is also, and first of all, My work in you. &nbsp;When you are before My Eucharistic Face and so close to My Heart, I am acting in you and acting upon you. &nbsp;Your whole being is subject to My divine influence when you present yourself before Me to adore Me.<br /><br />This, Daughter of St. Philip Neri, is why I so insist on adoration for you. &nbsp;It is the crucible of your perfection. &nbsp;It is the furnace of love in which I purify you like gold in the fire. &nbsp;It is the nuptial chamber in which I draw you to My Heart, and to speak to you face-to-face, as a bridegroom to his bride, and as man to a friend. &nbsp;The nuptial bond of the Daughter with Me pertains to the relationship between My divinity and the Daughter's soul. &nbsp;My humanity offers you a divine friendship, but that friendship leads to union of the soul with My divinity and to a fruitfulness that surpasses every action and work of a soul working on her own initiative.<br /><br />Consent to this friendship and I will espouse your soul. &nbsp;Thus will you be Mine in a way that exceeds every purely human notion of union, even the union between two souls in the purest charity. &nbsp;I created your soul for these espousals with My divinity, and your soul will have failed to attain that for which I created it, and that for which I destine you, unless you allow Me to love you and to purify you and to unite Me to yourself, not only as Friend to friend, but also as the One and Thrice Holy God to His beloved creature. &nbsp;I am one with My Father and with the Holy Spirit, and when I love a soul and espouse a soul to Myself, that soul is also united and espoused to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. &nbsp;Here, "espoused" is but a human word. &nbsp;These mystical espousals have about them nothing carnal or material. &nbsp;I speak of the union of the soul with her God, the realization of that for which she was created, and the fulfillment of her truest longings.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>I fear being deluded or of falling prey to my own imagination. &nbsp;Why should I dare to hope for such a thing or desire such an intimate love? &nbsp;What could I offer in return?</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Why should I not hold conversation with you who are the friend of My Heart? &nbsp;I speak in this way to many souls but not all recognize My voice, and very few welcome My conversation and receive My friendship as the freely given gift it is. &nbsp;It is My delight to hold conversation with those whom I love. Understand this: I hold conversation with you because I love you with an infinitely merciful and tender love and because I set My Heart upon you long ago to make you entirely My own.<br /><br />When the enemy who hates Me and who hates all whom I love saw that My love was preparing you for union with Myself, he set about corrupting you by every means at his disposal. &nbsp;Many things happened that put you at risk and threatened the fulfillment of My plan for you.<br /><br />All of this has been going on, visibly and invisibly, for so many years, but now I have led you into the harbor of peace and of holiness that I have prepared for you. &nbsp;This life of adoration is your harbor of salvation, just as it will be a harbor of salvation for many priests who risk being shipwrecked in the stormy waters of lives stirred up by sin and darkened by the shadows of evil. &nbsp;Thank Me that I have brought you here, and now begin to love Me more, desiring Me and choosing My love over all else. &nbsp;You are Mine.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">adapted from</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>In Sinu Jesus</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">The Journal of a Priest at Prayer</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><i style="color: #660000;"><br /></i><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-8469704485416418782017-08-29T08:32:00.001-04:002017-08-29T08:32:17.700-04:00Your hidden but beautiful vocation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGYQFFWkcFI/Vv2dQaGR02I/AAAAAAAB3_s/pFp6i2pgRu4WRAsvq-K4U0SZRisfaonSwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/Gabriel_Metsu_-_Crucifixion_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1249" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jGYQFFWkcFI/Vv2dQaGR02I/AAAAAAAB3_s/pFp6i2pgRu4WRAsvq-K4U0SZRisfaonSwCPcBGAYYCw/s640/Gabriel_Metsu_-_Crucifixion_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" width="497" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Do not be&nbsp;disturbed by or feel that there is anything lacking because of the hiddenness of what you have been called to do. &nbsp;There is a simplicity that the Lord desires from you. &nbsp;He has not called you to enter or found a community. &nbsp;Rather, He has called you to draw close to and enter His Eucharistic Heart and to offer Him your heart in trust and faith. &nbsp;Worry not about projects or ideals, but rather understand that He wants you to live for Him alone and allow Him to act freely in your lives. &nbsp;This free and hidden offering of yourself is what He desires. &nbsp;Offer Him all your love - for in Him you will have everything! &nbsp;Remain faithful to Adoration for this delights and consoles Him and understand that it is this adoration that allows Him to reach His priests most fully, even the most hardened of souls. &nbsp;This is your "primary ministry" to His priests. &nbsp;Adoration is the most efficacious way of reaching them - remain faithful to this and they will be the source of your eternal joy and thanksgiving!</i></span><br /><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I have not asked you to found a community, but rather to adore Me, to love Me, to seek My Eucharistic Face and draw near to My Eucharistic Heart. I have asked you to trust Me and to place in Me alone all your hope and all your dreams for happiness and peace. &nbsp;Seek Me, trust Me, and all the rest will be give you besides. &nbsp;You have only to remain humble and little and faithful. &nbsp;Without Me, you can nothing, but to Me, nothing is impossible.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Be faithful, then, to Me, not to a project or an ideal. &nbsp;I am your all. &nbsp;Live for me alone. &nbsp;Seek Me. Seek My Face. Take comfort close to My broken Heart. &nbsp;See how I love you, even to the piercing of My Heart by the soldier's lance, even to the last drops of blood and water. &nbsp;There is nothing I will not do for you, and this because I love you and because you are Mine. &nbsp;Only allow Me to act freely, choosing the means, and the day, and the hour.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here in the Sacrament of My love, you have everything. &nbsp;Here you have all of Heaven. &nbsp;Here you have the Creator of the earth and all that it holds, and of every human being who has ever seen the light of day. &nbsp;I am all yours. &nbsp;Be all Mine. &nbsp;Ask Me to unite you more and more to Myself, until you are completely hidden in the secret of My Face.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am delighted and consoled by your presence close to Me. &nbsp;This is what I asked of you, and you responded to the pleas of My Heart. &nbsp;Above all things, remain faithful to your times of adoration. &nbsp;Invisibly and imperceptibly I am at work in your soul and in the souls of the priests you represent before My Eucharistic Face. &nbsp;Your adoring presence before Me permits Me to reach them, and to touch even those whose hearts are hardened against Me. &nbsp;This is your primary ministry to My priests. So long as you remain faithful to this vocation of adoration, reparation and representation of your priests in the sight of My Eucharistic Face, I will bless you and pour out upon you the treasure of mercy reserved for you in My Sacred Heart.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To be sure, there are many ways of reaching out to My priests and of ministering to them, but of all these, Eucharistic adoration is the most efficacious and the most fruitful. &nbsp;Already My priests are experiencing the effect of your presence to Me in the Sacrament of My love. &nbsp;Remain faithful to this, and I will save and sanctify a great number of priests. &nbsp;In heaven they will be for you an eternal source of joy and of thanksgiving.</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u>In Sinu Jesu</u></span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u>Journal of a Priest at Prayer</u></span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-50557716227926011642017-08-26T08:11:00.001-04:002017-08-26T08:11:44.780-04:00When you pray for any soul . . . desire only what I desire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ijVAKVkP-DU/UxyKqnw8SQI/AAAAAAABZyk/UbXAPE931-cLMDa98aE-l0CfUIWDMVdIwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_0372.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1268" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ijVAKVkP-DU/UxyKqnw8SQI/AAAAAAABZyk/UbXAPE931-cLMDa98aE-l0CfUIWDMVdIwCPcBGAYYCw/s640/IMG_0372.JPG" width="506" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>As you dedicate yourself to Spiritual Motherhood and&nbsp;commit yourself to prayer on behalf of priests, it is important that you approach this labor both with love and humility. &nbsp;Let your love for Christ compel you to pray and lead you to the Eucharist. &nbsp;Let humility guide and direct you in that prayer. &nbsp;Set your own designs aside and seek only the will and desire of God for His priests. &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Despite the Lord's desire for their sanctification, many priests resist the action of His grace and turn away from the path of holiness He sets before them. &nbsp;Pray that their fear and self-absorption may be overcome. &nbsp;God overcomes every weakness and indeed works through the poor and prayerful priest most powerfully. &nbsp;The fruit of their labors depends nothing upon talents or natural abilities. &nbsp;It is not through worldly success that the priesthood will be renewed. &nbsp;The Lord has reserved special graces for those He calls to be His priests and victims. &nbsp;He will change and renew the face of the priesthood by the transforming light of His Eucharistic Face.</i></span><br /><br />When you pray for any soul, begin by uniting yourself wholly to My perfect will for that soul and by entering into all the designs of My Heart on that soul. &nbsp;Desire only what I desire. &nbsp;Will what I will. &nbsp;Let your prayer be a way of harnessing yourself to Me so that we might work together for souls and for My Father's glory. &nbsp;This is what I meant when I called My dear friends to take My yoke upon them. &nbsp;I wanted them to learn to labor with Me.<br /><br />By the prayer of adoration for My priests, you are working with Me for them. &nbsp;You are working with Me to lift them when they fall, to bind up their wounds, to deliver them from bondage to evil, to open them to My gifts, and to obtain for them a greater openness to the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />Your union with Me in prayer lessens the resistance of many priests to entering resolutely upon the path of holiness that I am opening before them. &nbsp;When you represent My priests before My Eucharistic Face, you are obtaining graces for them, but also the grace to accept those graces that I long to bestow upon them. &nbsp;So much of what I long to give to My priests his refused because they are unable to move beyond their fears and their self-absorption.<br /><br />I would work marvels in even place on earth through the ministry of My priests if they would accept the graces that I hold in reserve for them. &nbsp;I would first purify and sanctify them, and then, by means of their sacred ministry, purify and sanctify a great multitude of souls, so as to make them an offering of praise and thanksgiving to the glory of My Father.<br /><br />Why do My priests refuse the gifts that I would lavish upon them? &nbsp;Many are self-sufficient, relying on their natural abilities and talents, and thinking that these natural gifts are sufficient for the success of their ministry. &nbsp;But their idea of success is not Mine. &nbsp; And the means that they would take are not Mine. &nbsp;And I have no need of their natural abilities and talents. &nbsp;I can do more with one poor priest who, like the Cure of Ars, is humble and utterly united to Me by ceaseless prayer, than I can with a priest who astounds the world with his knowledge and presents himself brilliantly in the sight of men.<br /><br />When I find a priest who is open to My gifts, I lavish these gifts upon him. &nbsp;Nothing is lacking to the priest who comes before Me in his poverty, and even in his sins, provided that he give Me his poverty and entrust Me with his sins, and expose all his weaknesses to the transforming light of My Eucharistic Face.<br /><br />This is what I ask you to do for all my priests. &nbsp;I am about to renew My priesthood in the whole Church. &nbsp;I will purify the sons of Levi in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy, not those of a physical priestly lineage, but those who have taken the place of the former priesthood, and who are one with Me in the everlasting priesthood of the Order of Melchisedek. &nbsp;I will change the face of the priesthood and make it resplendent with the light reflected from My Eucharistic Face.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;">In Sinu Jesu</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">A Journal of a Priest at Prayer</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-82198662384338515412017-08-20T19:08:00.001-04:002017-08-20T19:08:04.361-04:00A priest's terrible responsibility towards the Eucharist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-foP1TlRwpII/WZoK-AbEwDI/AAAAAAACUEU/wE9cT9Tlpo09sF-vlH17311aevIdYjWZwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_7124.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1117" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-foP1TlRwpII/WZoK-AbEwDI/AAAAAAACUEU/wE9cT9Tlpo09sF-vlH17311aevIdYjWZwCLcBGAs/s640/IMG_7124.JPG" width="401" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Woe to the world without this pure, holy and immaculate victim, constantly sacrificed on the altar for its atonement and purification!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Woe to the souls that do not have Jesus Christ in the tabernacle! &nbsp;Poor me! if I do not have that consecrated Host that is my life, my strength, my only love and desire, my only joy and happiness. &nbsp;If I could only give my blood right down to the last drop for the beloved Church, for the doctrine that is scorned, for so much grace that is wasted and trampled on. &nbsp;Jesus, Jesus! &nbsp;Your ministers are sometimes the first to more or less see this liquid treasure spilled out from your very heart!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh my God, let me weep for this great misfortune with tears from my soul! &nbsp;They treat you, Lord, and your divine Sacraments with such a lack of respect, with such impure hearts and hands! &nbsp;How can you allow this to happen, Lord, how can you suffer it in such profound silence? &nbsp;Faith, Lord, faith! &nbsp;Shed your divine light on those minds that have been darkened by . . . shall I say it? (a hidden force makes me say it clearly!), darkened by vice . . . and you suffer, Lord, in the silence of the tabernacle you weep at the insults, at the loss of those poor souls.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Mercy, Lord, have mercy! &nbsp;I can see, Father, although I do not know how, the terrible judgment awaiting those priests who neither receive nor give the precious blood of Jesus Christ as they should . . . who do not work at their own holiness, in order to fruitfully sow the divine seed in hearts. &nbsp;The priests who live in the Church of the Lord like parasites have an enormous responsibility . . . I can feel the profound complaints of the divine Heart about this, something that deeply deeply hurts him!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If only with my blood and with my life, with my crucifixion, I could alleviate the pain of this divine Heart so maltreated by his own! &nbsp;My soul is in pain, Father, and I wish to be a victim. &nbsp;I want to suffer, and belonging entirely to God, I want to sacrifice myself for the holy and pure Church, where he has put his heavenly riches.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_QaMZB9gq-g/WZoTTwCfDvI/AAAAAAACUEw/cdVFPFccB7gM4jxm_MhAaKrgMAiu8ehBACEwYBhgL/s1600/3683.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1547" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_QaMZB9gq-g/WZoTTwCfDvI/AAAAAAACUEw/cdVFPFccB7gM4jxm_MhAaKrgMAiu8ehBACEwYBhgL/s400/3683.jpg" width="386" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>I need worthy and pure priests as victims, I mean, just as you saw me, pure white and constantly yearning for the sacrifice. &nbsp;I would gladly join them to myself in the sacrifice of the altar, offering both of us at the same time for the salvation of the world.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Yes,&nbsp;daughter, you should know this. &nbsp;I am constantly entering into impure souls, a terrible crime that will be punished by my justice with torture! &nbsp;This is a fairly constant thing too in my priests, who&nbsp;should be pure, chosen and clean&nbsp;vessels not only to receive me but to keep me in them&nbsp;consoling me and giving me to console with sacrifices of love.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The priest brings about on the altar, daughter, an exact copy of the Incarnation of the Word. &nbsp;It is as if, with the words of the Consecration, he creates, that is, gives life (this is the divine virtue inherent in those words) to a Being, a Being that is both divine and human, called God and man, the Word made flesh, your Jesus. &nbsp;The&nbsp;priest does not and cannot give life to God, because God is Life. &nbsp;He does not and cannot give life to the God-Man, because He lives and will live eternally glorified. &nbsp;Rather he transmits that divine and human life into the substance of the bread and the substance of the wine, bringing about the transubstantiation by the power of his words, so that what was before just bread and wine, after those holy words pronounced by the&nbsp;priest becomes the substance of my body and blood that was shed on Calvary . . . &nbsp;.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>When the&nbsp;priest takes the divine words of the Consecration on his lips, words born of Love, from an Excessive Love of the Word God Made Flesh, he has in them the substance of creation, and shortly afterwards he holds in his hands, I mean immediately after the words are pronounced, the substance of redemption, sacrificing me . . . &nbsp;.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Oh daughter! the priestly ministry is so sublime, and the bodies and souls of those who perform it should be so HOLY . . . &nbsp;.</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i style="color: blue; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.199999809265137px;">These most remarkable texts (adapted for the Daughters of St. Philip Neri) about the Eucharist, the experience of a Mystical Incarnation, and a participation in Mary's Spiritual Motherhood to Priest were written by a Mexican woman, who was married, had children and then became a widow - Concepcion Cabera de Armida. &nbsp;She passionately loved Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, to such a point that he became the center of her life. The heart will become warm again from contact with the fire of these writings, and will be cured of the indifference and the thoughtlessness with which the world of today treats the Eucharist. &nbsp;She lived in a time of violent&nbsp;religious persecution and a markedly anti-Christin revolution. &nbsp;May she be the spiritual mother of those who read this reflection, converting them into worshippers who seek the Father, "real worshippers who&nbsp;worship the Father in the spirit and in truth." &nbsp;May she guide them from a love of the Lord in the Eucharist to a love for His priests and desire for their conversion.</i></div>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-66961327547136789902017-08-14T20:02:00.001-04:002017-08-15T15:46:03.028-04:00Your priestly mission and shared spiritual motherhood with Mary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sFdTjdKbDZE/WZIu1rTWdAI/AAAAAAACT4A/R9QxIwe6OFEiRoeb_9IitZOmXbDYgIWTACLcBGAs/s1600/mother-of-priests.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="482" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sFdTjdKbDZE/WZIu1rTWdAI/AAAAAAACT4A/R9QxIwe6OFEiRoeb_9IitZOmXbDYgIWTACLcBGAs/s640/mother-of-priests.jpg" width="514" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>"Your role is that of a Mass mystically continued, and such should be the role of the Daughters of St. Philip Neri, to continue the offering, offering me&nbsp;to the Father, and offering themselves with me . . . &nbsp;. So many forget me, daughter! &nbsp;So many offend me! &nbsp;But the mission of the Daughters of St. Philip Neri is to repair this forgetfulness in union with Mary, consoling me, remembering me, but in the way I have told you.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>You see, I am hurt more by&nbsp;forgetfulness than by the world's offenses,&nbsp;because I am forgotten by my own people, and this deeply wounds my sensitive Heart.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Do not forget me, and may your people not forget me, because forgetting implies ingratitude, and this is the worst thorn in my Heart. &nbsp;</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Remember me by&nbsp;offering me, because if you remember me you remember the Father; you will remember both of us together.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>If only you could see how much&nbsp;forgetfulness there is of my Divine Person and of my graces among my own people.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>And so, during the hours of these crucifying Masses will my soul be ceaseless loving and consoling you day and night, covering you with tenderness and caressing you, repairing with you the offenses suffered by your heavenly Father?<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Yes, Daughter, for yours is a priestly mission, and together with Mary you will know not only how to console me but also to save them. &nbsp;Does your soul not desire to love me endlessly? &nbsp;Today I am placing in your soul this means of glorifying me, atoning with love . . . &nbsp;. Love, as I have told you, is the great atonement, the great repairer, and what is there that cannot be accomplished by maternal love?</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Lord, would you like to explain to me how my soul can be present at ever Mass, as you told me yesterday?<br /><i style="color: #660000;"><br /></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">It is very simple. &nbsp;Inasmuch as you are transformed into me, wherever I am, you are, and wherever you are, I am,&nbsp;because of this unifying union that makes one out of two.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">You will be in the Masses together with Mary through the reflection of the divine motherhood, by reason of the Mystical Incarnation in your soul and as a fortunate result of this grace.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">You will be there with your will, a power superior to the soul, which together with mine forms just one desire with mine.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">You will be present through love, which is&nbsp;everywhere and&nbsp;bridges all distances, which climbs up to heaven and reaches the infinite bosom of God, who is One and yet many.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">You will be present, because this is my Will, and that is sufficient.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">But apart from this, My intention is that your mind will never be separated from me, as far as this is possible, that your memory will always be with me, that your tenderness and consolation of Love continue in your soul and that I will never be without them. &nbsp;My intention is that your soul be joined together with that of Mary, as a sign of your union with her, fulfilling your mission on the altars.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #660000;">You already know your mission - it consists of adoring, atoning, and consoling my Heart, obtaining graces for priests glorifying me.</span></i><br /><i><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span></i>Father, can you see what I feel? &nbsp;Can it be that Jesus' words are being fulfilled? &nbsp;I can feel my soul present at Mass all over the world, in intimate and constant remembrance of Jesus. &nbsp;It is not just a normal remembrance, but a memory of life - a living and intimate remembrance, as if the remembrance of him who calls me and my own remembrance that follows him met on the way.<br /><span style="color: #660000; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>It is a memory of possession - I have it and I want to have it. &nbsp;It is as if the memory were his image, as if it were he himself, and day and night I think of the altar on which he is constantly sacrificed, and I see myself next to him, offering him up with Mary. &nbsp;His memory is he himself for me; it is both possession and union.<br /><span style="color: #660000; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>My love for Mary is also growing day by day, as if her perfection and virtue were illuminating me, as if she were drawing me to herself with trust, and I do not run away at the point of shame because of the Mystical Incarnation, but rather I fall into her arms, asking her for her lessons of love.<br /><span style="color: #660000; font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="color: #660000; font-style: italic;">This is your role, to be present with your soul together with my Mother at Mass . . . &nbsp;. Does your soul not sigh and weep when you see insulting and sacrilegious Masses, even though your body is not there?</span><br /><span style="color: #660000; font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>This place on the altar belongs to you because of this maternal detail, because, Daughter, Mary's Son is also your Son, the Son of your heart, the one who is crucified on the altar by both worthy and unworthy priests, and your motherly soul has to be present to weep and to suffer, to love and console, or to be joyful when the Immaculate Lamb is offered to the Father by pure hands.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>My sacrifice would not be complete without my Mother's heart, because of Mary's&nbsp;motherhood. &nbsp;She completed my Passion, and she keeps on carrying out her role as co-redemptrix.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The Church, together with its priests and its faithful, should continue my Passion on earth.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The favor I have bestowed on you with is very great - joining you to Mary in a special way . . . &nbsp;.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>At night I felt a painful sorrow inside, and I remembered him offended in so many Masses. &nbsp;Jesus came without my asking him, and he told me this, <span style="color: #660000;"><i>"You see, spiritual&nbsp;</i></span><i><span style="color: #660000;">motherhood obtains grace, since its intercession,&nbsp;</span></i><span style="color: #660000;"><i>because of its divine origin, is more powerful.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>God gives himself continuously, and motherly souls should also give&nbsp;themselves. &nbsp;But where do they receive if not from the eternal Fountain of all graces?</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>This is why their spirits have to be joined like the branches to the Vine.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>But that is my role on earth, the mission of a Man-God's most purified love, to live constantly on earth as a sacrifice on the altars&nbsp;reliving the Passion of Calvary, to enable them to reach heaven.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The sacrifice of the Cross on the altar was enough, but the cruelty of my wicked priests has led me to another Calvary on the altar - another sacrifice, another Passion, double martyrdom with the sacrilege they impose on me, a double Cross on which they doubly sacrifice me, on which they challenge heaven and my very Person, not only laden with their sins but as if I were the actual criminal.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>And what happens next? &nbsp;Mary comes in between her two sons, interceding to&nbsp;heaven and obtaining forgiveness, sacrificing her only Son with this delicate motherly martyrdom.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>And this concerns you and all motherly souls. &nbsp;They alone have this privilege. &nbsp;The Father listens to them and they appease him, because there is a holy thread of fruitfulness in those same motherly souls (because of the Mystical Incarnation), and this is wherein the&nbsp;secret of their power for intercession lies, because in a way God sees God in them, the Father sees the Father, from the same holy thread of motherhood received from the Father.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>But sacrificing the holy and pure Son is martyrdom, Jesus of my soul, in order to obtain forgiveness for the other guilty and pitiless son, who dares to be you, and together with you to offend your Father.<br /><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i>But once again, this is my role, the role of the sacrificed lamb, and your role and Mary's is the one of motherly martyrdom, offering up in the same way as the Father the Divine Son to be crucified, but with this&nbsp;unheard-of difference.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>My enemies did not know what they were doing on Calvary, but my wicked priests crucify me twice on the altar, fully aware of their betrayal and shamelessness, and they martyr me with a double martyrdom, the martyrdom of seeing myself in them, a criminal before my Father, and the martyrdom of drinking from the chalice of their condemnation, a very delicate and painful martyrdom for my soul that loves them so much.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>And this double martyrdom also implies a double love, the love that you should have on the altar, the tremendous pain of seeing me doubly sacrificed by my wicked priests, and the awful torture of seeing the treacherous priest condemned in life. &nbsp;Rather than with a kiss, he betrays me to such terrible suffering and a&nbsp;double pain, the pain of seeing&nbsp;myself offending my Father in the priest, together with what he most loves, his own Son, who only wants endless worship for him, and the pain of seeing the Savior of the world as a reproach to the priest until he is washed with contrition, that is, with my blood, the same blood that he has drunk sacrilegiously.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Can you see your role more clearly now on many of my altars?</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: blue;"><i>These most remarkable texts (adapted for the Daughters of St. Philip Neri) about the Eucharist, the experience of a Mystical Incarnation, and a participation in Mary's Spiritual Motherhood to Priest were written by a Mexican woman, who was married, had children and then became a widow - Concepcion Cabera de Armida. &nbsp;She passionately loved Jesus in the Holy Sacrament, to such a point that he became the center of her life. The heart will become warm again from contact with the fire of these writings, and will be cured of the indifference and the thoughtlessness with which the world of today treats the Eucharist. &nbsp;She lived in a time of violent&nbsp;religious persecution and a markedly anti-Christin revolution. &nbsp;May she be the spiritual mother of those who read this reflection, converting them into worshippers who seek the Father, "real worshippers who&nbsp;worship the Father in the spirit and in truth." &nbsp;May she guide them from a love of the Lord in the Eucharist to a love for His priests and desire for their conversion.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-33074633833329564352017-08-10T16:29:00.001-04:002017-08-10T16:29:32.101-04:00Priestly souls depend on your fidelity <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wFeM06f7IyE/UrORC2QOB9I/AAAAAAAAjq4/k0oFAFmCldkJ524EjC_0EXkki42iWzJSwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/tumblr_mvdbpjNMv01suuc8do1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wFeM06f7IyE/UrORC2QOB9I/AAAAAAAAjq4/k0oFAFmCldkJ524EjC_0EXkki42iWzJSwCPcBGAYYCw/s640/tumblr_mvdbpjNMv01suuc8do1_500.jpg" width="526" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Dear Daughters of St. Philip Neri,</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>The path has been set before you and offers you rest and healing. &nbsp;However, you must commit to abide with Me along this path and to remain there as long as you can. &nbsp;Do not compromise the immense grace that is offered to you by holding on to other things. &nbsp;You are a Daughter of St. Philip and the renewal of many priestly souls depends upon your fidelity to this call. &nbsp;Their healing and sanctification depends upon the love&nbsp;you have for them and your fidelity to adoration. &nbsp;At times you may feel isolated but you are not alone. &nbsp;There are many I have called to this life of adoration and reparation. &nbsp;Do not be afraid; grace has been given for all I have called you to do.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>The path I have traced before you is the path of adoration. &nbsp;Walk this path in the light of My Eucharistic Face and you will see that it leads straight into My open Heart. &nbsp;This is the very path that I would set before all My priests. &nbsp;I want them to walk in the light of My Face, forsaking all darkness, and desiring nothing so much as to rest within My sacred side.<br /><br />My pierced Heart is the wellspring of purity, healing, and of holiness. &nbsp;How much I want to draw you to My open Heart in the Sacrament of My love! &nbsp;It is enough for you to come to Me, even if you are weary and without words or affectionate thoughts.. &nbsp;By the simple act of coming to Me, you demonstrate your love for Me and your desire for My healing and purifying action in your souls and the souls of priests. <br /><br />You must learn to remain in My presence, to abide there for as long as you can, for this is the very essence of the life to which I have called you. &nbsp;When you forsake Me for other things, you are compromising the immense grace I have given you in bringing you here to be an adorer of My Eucharistic Face. &nbsp;The healing and purification &nbsp;of many priestly souls depends on your fidelity to this call to adoration and reparation. &nbsp;I have charged you with a grave responsibility for the healing of priests and for the return of many of them to My open Heart. &nbsp;Their healing and sanctification depends on the love you have for them and on the expression of that love by fidelity to adoration. &nbsp;I have elected to associate you to Myself and to My most holy Mother in this work. &nbsp;You are not alone. There are many other souls whom I have called to this life of adoration and reparation for My beloved priests. &nbsp;But you have your part to play in this design of My merciful love and no one can fulfill this part except you.You see, then, that I count on you. &nbsp;But do not be afraid. &nbsp;I will give you the grace to be faithful to all that I have asked of you. &nbsp;It is not you who will do great things for My priests, but rather Me living in you as in another humanity marked by My priesthood, another humanity in which I can offer Myself to the Father and pour Myself out for souls.<br /><br />adapted from:<br /><span style="color: #660000;"><u>In Sinu Jesu</u></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">A Journal of a Priest at Prayer</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;">A Benedictine Priest</span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><br /></span>Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1864419952695381880.post-4704453985814039342017-08-07T19:04:00.003-04:002017-08-07T19:04:36.500-04:00You will not be disappointed in coming to me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TufzPVWJJS0/WIETSaUV3eI/AAAAAAACFZY/2WPXGY3HL4Y1jfuQaz-9i6I1jRCUrzGzgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/c81d810ceb0b7c11999fbcb91f084e0c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TufzPVWJJS0/WIETSaUV3eI/AAAAAAACFZY/2WPXGY3HL4Y1jfuQaz-9i6I1jRCUrzGzgCPcBGAYYCw/s640/c81d810ceb0b7c11999fbcb91f084e0c.jpg" width="431" /></a></div><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="color: #660000;"><i>Sometimes I fear that it is all an illusion; that You could call one like me to Spiritual Motherhood - to care for Your priests. &nbsp;I know my past, my wantonness; how I ignored You seeking my own way and my own pleasures. &nbsp;I, myself, had no love for you and now You call me? &nbsp;And even if You should be, my heart trembles at the notion. &nbsp;What will my life become? &nbsp;Will it be recognizable? &nbsp;The very thought of living for you thrills my soul but also fills it with fear. &nbsp;I know my own selfishness, how easily I turn my thoughts to the things of the world, how weak my constitution is and how averse I am to discipline and simplicity. &nbsp;Even as I have tried, I draw back from completely giving myself to you. &nbsp;I linger in past memories, nay cling to them, almost hoping that a more comforting love will emerge, one that seems more tangible. &nbsp;My mind gravitates to distractions, to entertainment, to work - anything to hold me back from letting go - anything to keep me from say yes. . . &nbsp;.</i></span><br /><span style="color: #660000;"><i><br /></i></span>I want you to live in silence and adoration.<br /><br />Spend less time at the computer and more time in My presence. &nbsp;I wait for you here. &nbsp;I long to see you before Me. &nbsp;I want to give you all the signs of My friendship that My Heart has destined for you and for no other, but for this you must come to Me. &nbsp;Follow the promptings of My grace.<br /><br />There is no need for you to grow anxious or fearful. &nbsp;I will continue speaking to you so long as you come before Me with a quiet and trusting heart. &nbsp;I still have much to teach you. &nbsp;I want to form you in purity, in charity, in mercy towards the priests in your care, and in the ceaseless adoration that I desire from you.<br /><br />Wait upon Me. &nbsp;Come to Me. &nbsp;Open to your heart to Me and I will open My Heart to you.<br /><br />This is one of My most poignant sufferings; that I should encounter hearts that are closed to Me, even among My beloved priests, the friends whom I have chosen for myself. &nbsp;How can I have friendship with one who closes his heart to Me, who flees My presence, who cannot bear to be silent, still and alone with Me and for Me?<br /><br />Even for you this remains a struggle. &nbsp;There are so many lesser things that pull you away, that eat up your time, and that are stumbling blocks in the path of your coming to be with Me. &nbsp;Learn to &nbsp;recognize these obstacles for what they are. &nbsp;Some of them are your own doing; others are the work of the Evil One; still others come from the ordinary cares of life in a world that has forgotten how to be still in My presence. &nbsp;Do not let yourself be stopped by any of these things. &nbsp;Learn to come to Me quickly, generously, and gladly. &nbsp;I wait for you in the Sacrament of My love, and you will not be disappointed in coming to Me. &nbsp;This is really all I ask of souls, and especially my priests and you My Daughters - that you come to Me. &nbsp;And I will do the rest.<br /><br />adapted from:<br /><i>In Sinu Jesu</i><br /><i>Journal of a Priest at Prayer</i><br /><i><br /></i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZzriu2VpUg/WUO4bD3xN3I/AAAAAAACRdU/hPZhzf8koZcWZ205_Z88BrFGc36LIsnLwCPcBGAYYCw/s400/in-sinu-jesu-cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><i><br /></i><br />Fr. David Abernethy, C.O.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11961493282875855929noreply@blogger.com0